And Life Goes On
by Germs
Summary: Conflict erupts as life goes on for our heroes and they try to figure out what's happening and how to stop it. Chapter 1 revised...R&R...please
1. And Life Goes On

I decided to revise this chapter a little bit, making it easier to read. It was my first chapter ever….so I thought a little reworking wouldn't hurt

I also thought that maybe I'm not getting all that many reviews because people don't read all the way through after being chased away by a tedious first chapter….if this is your first time, please read all the way through, i know this chapter might seem a little slow….but you shouldn't be disappointed…

So on with it...

**-------And Life Goes On-------**

Things hadn't changed too much since the party of eight had come home. New Vale was finally reaching completion. Ivan and Sheba were settling down into their new home, reaching the decision that Vale could use some wind adepts. Felix was taking them under his wing along with Jenna in his newly finished home, with plenty of room for get togethers and parties, though he was kind of against the idea of having parties under his roof. Garet's father kept his position as mayor of Vale and Garet's siblings only served to be more and more of an annoyance to him, although half the time it was the other way around.

Picard decided that he would have a little more fun in the outside world. Besides, Vale could always use a Mercury aligned adept. Mia decided to stay just a little bit longer before setting out for Imil to finish the training of Megan and Justin. Isaac felt a slight twinge at that, but shrugged it off. Isaac and Co had built a beautiful new home for Dora, overlooking a part of the new town and Mt. Aleph at the same time. Too soon, however, it was time to say good bye to their many-time-a-savior.

"Man, what is it with Garet and late." Isaac sighed as he waited impatiently for his best friend. Garet hadn't always been a tardy person, but recently for reasons that no one understood, he had been showing up late for dinners and social events. "Oh, look, here comes the brute."

"Sorry about that, was looking up some stuff at Kraden's place," panted Garet as he ran up short of breath. Sheba and Ivan looked at each other with the "huh?" look on their faces, clearly anticipating a chance to mind read the Mars adept later.

The seven were waiting for Mia to come out of the inn, where she had been staying for the past several months. Picard was going to escort her in the long journey to Imil, and besides, he had always wanted to see what the Mercury lighthouse was like. Felix, Isaac and the rest of them shifted uncomfortably in the sun, waiting for the angel of their group to come out. Each and everyone of them had in some point of their journey across Weyard, owed their life to Mia and her healing specialty, so in turn, all of them wanted to say a proper farewell. The door to the inn swung forward, and out stepped the young woman who everyone had come to know and love.

"Whoa, did the whole town come to see me off?" asked Mia as she stepped into the sunlight and saw that nearly the entire town had come to the square where the inn was situated. She had a small backpack with all she needed for the journey to Imil, and she smiled as she noticed the rather large pack that Picard had on his back. "Ready to leave?" Picard had become a big brother figure to Mia during the relatively short time they had known each other. Mia taught him more about the healing powers of Mercury, and Picard showed her the potential in the offensive and defensive powers of Water.

"Yeah, anytime you're ready, but I think one of our co-leaders has a little something for you." Picard stepped back as Isaac stepped forward with a long, thin bundle. Isaac had been working in the blacksmiths and carpentry shops for quite a while after rebuilding them in the aftermath of the Golden Sun. His work was now revealed. The plain tan cloth fell away to reveal not a rod of the sort that Mia had been using throughout her life, but a staff, a staff of brilliant proportions.

It was a smooth, white pole; the tip of the staff reaching to a point just above her head. The ivory whiteness opened up near the top into a pointed flower half encasing the entire focus of everyone who "Ahhh"ed and "Ooooh"ed. The ivory wood held a blue sapphire, easily the length of a hand and as wide at the middle, the widest point. The white wood held the gem in place with four outward angled pieces at the gem's four defined edges but the anchors only reached halfway up the gem to the widest point, leaving the top of the sapphire exposed for the sun to glitter down upon. It was a work of art, and the whole town knew it.

"… … … so I guess that's what he's been doing these past couple months… … …" said a shocked Garet. He wasn't the only owner of a surprised face. Everyone looked at Isaac with deep admiration and envy at Mia for owning such a staff. Even, Ivan who knew his leader had been crafting something to this extent was blown away by the magnificent skill of his "big bro."

Isaac looked around sheepishly, clearly taken aback by the attention. No one looked convinced that it wasn't beautiful enough to compare to the works of the heavens themselves, but Isaac had always been humble and never complacent in the things he did.

Mia and the rest of the group could only stare in admiration."Wow, thanks…really…it's wonderful…" And with that Mia threw herself onto Isaac with arms wrapped around him and the staff held tightly in one hand. "Thank you so much for everything. I'll treasure this staff for the rest of my life and I've loved being in your company. It's been more than anything I could possibly hope for in Imil. You'll visit?" And with that she gave Isaac a light peck on the cheek, leaving the Venus adept as red as the beacon in the Mars lighthouse.

The others gave the farewells one by one, and finally it came to Jenna. Jenna shyly, which was very unlike the fiery Mars adept, brought out a package of her own and presented it to Mia, her best friend for the time they had known each other, opposing elements forgotten in their gossiping and trying emotional times (such as the time when Garet spilled soup on Mia's robe and the promptly burned a hole in it trying to dry it out. Jenna helped Mia in hanging Garet over the edge of the ship as they glided over the wide, open, deep ocean). Apparently Jenna had also been spending time in the blacksmith, but instead of carpentry, it was the leather worker's shop that she had been spending her other time in.

Mia received a gorgeous set of slender gauntlets, which fit perfectly onto her slim fingers and arms. The extremely pale mythril was unlike anything anyone in their party had ever seen. The insides were lined with leather, softer than a baby's skin and along with the mythril, made this pair of arm wear; the most flexible that Mia had ever worn. There was also a sort of fiery Jenna sort of crafting in them.

There were only a few words between the two girls and few tears, but Jenna promised to visit and drag Isaac and Co. along as well. The Mercury djinn flounced around a little more with the other elemental creatures before jumping into Mia and Picard. With that, Mia left with Picard. More than anything, it was a farewell to the people of Vale as the citizens couldn't just run off and visit Imil, but to Felix, Isaac, Sheba, Ivan, Jenna, and Garet, it was just a goodbye till next time.

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A few months passed. Mia sent a letter saying she arrived safely a quick two weeks after leaving Vale, but the apparently the bird that she sent for Vale got lost or something, taking a full month and a half to bring her note to the newly finished Vale. Picard also wrote, saying he wanted to stay for a year or two to learn all he could about the powers of Mercury and Ply.

A few visitors passed through the town occasionally from Vault and even Tolbi to see the heroes of Angara and the whole of Weyard. Luckily, these visitors were few and Vale began to prosper once more as a town of adepts and many skills. Trade began to flourish as cities like Bilibin and towns such as Xian started to demand high quality Vale goods such as silverware, footwear, metal and precious stone work, lumber, etc.

Things were going well for the Valeans. Felix was kept busy in charge of the export and import of goods. Isaac further sharpened his crafting skills and brought in huge sums of money for the beautiful weapons and furniture that he made with the help of the local blacksmith and Jenna. Sheba and Ivan revealed to their buddies that Garet was always late in things because he had been studying the history of Vale, the history of Mt. Aleph and adepts, and preparing himself to become a leader of Vale; after all, his father, quote Garet, "wasn't going to be mayor forever." Isaac and Co laughed at this, but they encouraged Garet anyway; he had become a little more responsible.

Sheba and Ivan traveled through the immediate area around Vale, clearing out the harmful beasts, finding pets for the children of Vale and Vault (the closest town), handling mail, and generally doing good things for the well-being of Vale. As money flowed into Vale, the two wind adepts found themselves more and more in charge of finances. Vale didn't need money, and in fact, the people didn't really have a need for it. But the gold was kept in a vault stowed away in Felix's home, considered the most secure place in town with four powerful adepts living in it.

Jenna helped out Isaac where she could, helped Garet in his history lessons, helped Sheba and Ivan out around Vale, and was essentially a jack-of-all trades who did everything she could for her home.

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"Bah….I'm bored," said Isaac one day, sitting at home with his mother and Garet in the living room. "It's been a year and two months since Picard and Mia left. Wow, time really flies with the all the stuff going around here. We should go pay them a visit. Garet?"

"Mmffmmuurrgfffmmm" mumbled the Mars Adept. He swallowed the cake he had been working on. "Yeah, that's a good idea. It's a good time of year to make the two week journey there and we can make it back in time for summer in Vale. The roads should be good. I'll go call up everyone to meet in the plaza in half an hour. " He walked out with a handful of watermelon. Isaac shook his head. He was amazed at how much Garet had changed in his self training to be a leader of the people.

Humming a tune, Garet rounded up the old gang and laid out a detailed plan and schedule he thought out in the half hour that everyone was congregating in the plaza. "Yeah, so if we leave within the week, make it to Imil in two weeks, spend a week to three weeks there, come back in two weeks, we should be back for summer and the start of the busiest season for Vale."

"Seems like Garet's gotten himself organized and thinking, albeit a few years later than the rest of us," remarked Felix.

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?!?"

"Just speaking the truth," his face slightly crinkling with hidden smiles

Ivan butted in, "We should set out soon, sometime tomorrow then? That should give us plenty of time to prepare for the journey." The party of six agreed and the next day, set out for the far away town of Imil.

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"Damnit Garet!!! We've gotten lost again! What is freaking wrong with you! Why the heck did we let Isaac hand over the map to a lousy navigator!" screamed Jenna. After passing through Bilibin, the party had gotten lost as Garet asked to lead them around and give Isaac and Felix a break. "Next time, no shortcuts!" Jenna seemed to be getting into more and more fits of rage at one of her best friends. Of course, it was a friendly rage, but with her mouth wide open and angry words flying out, it didn't seem like anything friendly.

Felix merely sighed and continued walking. Isaac, Sheba, and Ivan were together discussing random topics among themselves, ignoring the blunders and stupidity of Garet. There wasn't much the party could do except follow up on Garet's actions and hope for the best; even though he had changed, he was still a terrible tracker and navigator.

Suddenly a rattling sound rounded a bend in the path. Three goblins spotted the party and immediately went into a frenzy, their maces and chains rattling in a lust for violence. Isaac and Felix went into battle mode. "Jenna, Sheba, Ivan to the back, use psynergy and Jenna use your healing powers when you see someone struggling," shouted Isaac. "This'll be good experience for us, seeing as we haven't actually fought in quite a while," Felix said to himself. "Garet, Isaac, with me!" With that, Felix dove into battle, drawing his Sol Blade and casting a small Earthquake at the same time.

Apparently, it was a full goblin squad. 20 of the little bastards were running at the party of six. "Shine Plasma!" "Tornado!" yelled Sheba and Ivan. Electricity tore through the enemy ranks and winds threw around some units, several were killed outright. Jenna watched in awe as Garet literally threw himself onto units without heed or care for injuries. His Fire Brand unleashed Purgatory twice, incinerating a few of the ugly beasts.

Isaac's Gaia blade was a viper among his clumsy opponents. Slashing and weaving in and out, his sword was deadly. There wasn't a sword master anywhere that could match Isaac. His blade unleashed the giant Titan blade, which was ironic since the Gaia blade wasn't all that big itself, more of a long sword than a broadsword.

Realizing that Garet was calling for an energy boost, Jenna threw her arms out and raised her Tisiphone Edge, casting Aura to rejuvenate the slightly tiring party and then a Fireball, a myriad of balls of fire that crashed into the goblins, sending them reeling backwards to be finished off by a Storm Ray or the thrust of a sword. A goblin sneaked around to Felix's unprotected back only to be thrown aside by Ivan's Kikuichimonji's Asura. Sheba with her Lachesis' Rod managed to hold back two goblins at once, showing how far the 16 year old girl had come in a year. With a final Vengeance from Jenna's Edge and a Megiddo from Felix's Sol Blade, the squad of short little ugly goblins was sent sprawling in all directions.

"Whew, that was actually kinda fun," said Isaac. Amazingly, he wasn't even breathing hard. He twirled his blade back into its scabbard. "We didn't even need to use our djinn. Interesting though, I've never seen goblins work together in groups before."

Garet was panting with several cuts on his arms and back, "What does it matter, hey Ivan, pass me an herb will you. It should be plenty strong enough for these scratches. Thanks shorty."

"Don't call me that you big oaf!"

"Who you calling oaf, twerp!"

"Twerp?!? At least I know how to navigate through caves and forests. Your brain should be considered twerpy!"

"Is twerpy even a word, mister-I-know-everything."

Felix pounded Garet on the back telling him that they had gotten out of the Bilibin-Goma forests and it was no time to be arguing. Garet looked up at the direction that Felix was pointing. The intimidating Goma range had one way through it, and that was the dark, cavernous Goma Cave. Something or someone had put out all the torches that were in the cave trail before, so the path looked freakishly dark and evil. With a sigh, Isaac walked in first, Gaia Blade in hand and Flint on his shoulder.

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Author's note: So, that was my first fic ever…wouldn't mind some reviews. The battle scene seemed a little awkward to me, but it's the reader's opinion that counts. Pairings are as of now, undecided. Picard sounds a little better than Piers. The weapons I'm a little iffy on their unleashes and who can use which weapons. More chapters are coming. Suggestions on anything?

Revision A/N: Hmmm…to put it simply…just review, or keep reading if you haven't already... :)


	2. Spring Storms

Thanks to those who reviewed  
  
Because of one of those great people, known as people who reviewed, suggested it, this fic will involve mudshipping!!!....I kinda like it too :P  
  
Note: even though the Gaia blade is statistically weaker than the Sol blade, they are equal in this fic since it would make sense that the last great weapon in each game is equal and also, I think that the user, who uses his weapons well, who counts, not the weapons that make the user good.  
  
Another note: mud, flame, wind...and if you don't like these shippings, then too bad...also, the romance part of things is going to come slowly not all at once in one chapter...so be patient if you're reading this for that and don't expect too much from me...this is my first fic after all  
  
Yeah, lame title but I can't think of anything better  
  
Oh yeah...disclaimer: I don't own Golden Sun...whatever  
  
======Spring Storms ==========  
  
"Wish those wall torches were still around," said Isaac as he and Felix led the adepts through the dark, cold Goma Cave. Bats could be heard rustling above. Felix sighed as he relit his torch that had just gone out. The party had been stuck wandering around in a cave for several days that should have been straight forward and easy.  
  
"Ouch! Garet!" exclaimed Ivan. "What was that rock for?"  
  
"Rock, I didn't throw or kick any rocks"  
  
"Someone threw a rock at me!"  
  
"Don't go blaming me!"  
  
"Well, who else would do something so stu...oof!" Ivan slammed into Felix's suddenly, non-moving back. Peering around him, Ivan saw what little light they had from their torches glinting off gleaming light blue scales and lethal looking claws. "What's that...or what are those?" asked Ivan as more glinting shapes came into view."  
  
Isaac replied, "Can't tell, but I do see the exit behind them."  
  
"Exit?" "Wahoo, we're getting out of here!" "Finally..."  
  
Felix interrupted their excitement, "We need a way past these things first. Let's see if we can't distract them enough to make a break for it, and if they follow us, it'll be easier to fight outside than in this place. Besides I'm so sick of this cave."  
  
Garet unleashed Flash, giving them a protective shield as they made a dash through the gleaming metal/scales/whatever. "Clay Spire!" said Isaac and Felix, covering their unidentifiable enemies in rock and dirt and racing out into the sweet sunshine, reflected many times over on the snow. Unfortunately, the cave creatures weren't letting their potential meal get away. Swooping out of the dark mountain, they landed in front of the panting party.  
  
"Eh...What are those? Mini dragons?" asked Sheba.  
  
"What the hell, I'll just fry them for dinner," said Jenna, readying to launch a Liquefier attack.  
  
"No wait, those are wyverns. I read about them in Kraden's cabin, but I didn't know they came down from the mountain peaks," said Garet in a very unlike Garet intelliglble way. "They shouldn't harm us, they're probably just curious as to what humans are and what we're doing in their territory. They won't attack unless we do something rash."  
  
"Oh crap, now you tell me," whispered Jenna as she tried to stop the Liquefier from coming out. She managed to tone it down to a Heat Wave, but an attack was an attack, no matter how strong it was. The ice wyvern dodged, and flew into the air, rising into the clouds. The other ones merely glanced at Jenna and flew off as well. "Uh...weren't they supposed to attack?"  
  
"Thank God they didn't. Maybe they felt your power go down and knew you didn't have killing intentions. Who knows?" said Ivan. "Imil's only a short day's distance from here, but if we don't hurry, I feel the wind picking up and a storm coming."  
  
"A storm in spring?" questioned Garet. "Can we even make it in two days?"  
  
"Probably not, but the closer we get, the higher the chances of survival are," replied Sheba. She pulled her cloak around her, looking at the skies and then at a roar above, coming from the mountain. Three Maulers jumped down from a cave in the mountain side, landing with a loud thud, making the snow swirl around in the winds that were picking up. Sheba looked farther up and could see wyverns circling high above.  
  
"Jenna, Sheba make a run for Imil. Felix go with them, they'll need you for your healing abilities. Garet, Ivan and I can take these monsters out. Like Sheba said, the closer we get the higher chance we get through the storm. We'll catch up to you later. GO now!" commanded Isaac. Pulling out his Gaia blade, he unleashed Ground, keeping the Maulers temporarily stuck to the ground beneath them. Felix took one look at Isaac and took off. Sheba and Jenna showed worry and concern in their faces, but they went with Felix, taking off in the direction of where they had seen smoke in the previously crystal clear sky. "Now, let's see what these wyverns are made of," said Isaac, watching the wyverns tip over into dives.  
Ivan whispered several words and a tornado appeared, whirling icy blue beasts around in the air, followed by a pounding of electrical energy. Garet's Liquefiers, Pyroclasms, and Infernos were by far the most effective Psynergies on the Mercury aligned beasts. The wyverns dove and swerved, attempting to rake Ivan with their shiny claws. Isaac was dealing with three especially troublesome flying lizards, taking out one with an Odyssey attack, but it left his back open to an Ice Breath, knocking him down and sending him flying into a still stationary Mauler.  
  
"Damn" whispered Isaac, rolling clear of the sweeping claws and snarling jaws. He had learned one thing in his previous journey, never drop your weapon. Gaia blade in hand, he cast a quick Cure on his back and Ivan's shoulder which was bleeding from a lucky hit by an Ice Dirge. Dirges were joining the fray, eager to taste blood although thankfully, they were weak little creatures.  
  
"Summon Kirin!" yelled Garet, sending two of his djinn into the spirit world to summon a Mars aligned beast to tear into the wyvern ranks and to burn the pesky bats. His Fire Brand was deadly among wyverns; Purgatory literally ripped apart wings from bodies; tails, necks, and heads went flying.  
  
The Maulers were set loose by Ground, the djinn exhausted of its energy. Isaac's attention immediately turned toward the charging bears, which were extremely angry at being held up in their bloodlust. "Mother Gaia!" The ground opened up, and boulders flew out, knocking out a Mauler outright and injuring the other two. Ivan finished one off with his Kikuichimonji's Asura and a Titan Blade impaled the other, finishing the battle.  
  
"Whew, lots of enemies," said Garet, looking around at the still wyvern, dirge, and mauler bodies. "Stinks too"  
  
"Like you?" asked Ivan.  
  
"Why you..."  
  
Isaac interrupted, "It's not the time for this, guys, storm coming." He pointed to the sky. Clouds were rolling in and snow was falling, slowly at first, but then harder. "Northern springs for you..." sighed Isaac.  
  
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"I hope they're alright," Jenna said to Sheba. The two were jogging at Felix's pace.  
  
"Don't worry about it. Isaac is the best swordsman in the world, Ivan is the strongest mage that I know, and Garet...well Garet is just Garet," Sheba replied to Jenna's concern.  
  
"Yeah, that's what worries me. Oh look, snow." Snow was falling faster and faster. Soon, it became a full blown storm. Racing for shelter, brother, sister, and princess ran off the path into the forest, looking for something, anything to shelter them in the face of such a blizzard. A small clearing in the forest provided a little shelter, wide trees blocking off most of the bitter wind.  
  
"At this rate, we'll never reach Imil," complained Jenna. "Look at this weather." She flounced down onto the ground, throwing her Tisiphone Edge into a tree; it quivered, stuck into the cold wood. Felix sighed, pulling it out.  
  
"Calm down, we'll get there sooner or later. Oh look, company." A Mauler and two oozes walked, or bounced in the jellies' case, into the already packed clearing.  
  
Sheba acted. "Luff, ward them away." Her djinn swept toward the monsters, swirling around them, giving off a peaceful aura. The oozes immediately turned around and bounced away. The Mauler wasn't going to be so easy as to just walk away despite the djinn's efforts. It threw itself onto the nearest target, Sheba, claws sweeping with such speed that the usually agile wind adept couldn't dodge.  
  
"Get out of the way! I can't kill the thing with you there!" yelled Felix, readying a Ragnarok. Sheba rolled away, clutching a bleeding left arm with her right, her face contorted with pain. "Damnit, hold on Sheba. Ragnarok!" A sword made of Venus psynergy flew into the Mauler's huge furry chest, pinning it to a tree, and then dissipating. Undaunted by the torrent of blood coming out of its own body, the beast charged again at the bleeding Jupiter adept.  
  
Jenna held out one arm with her reclaimed Edge, "Vengeance! Die you bastard!" A misty looking archer appeared in the air, loosing three arrows into the bear. Each shaft went deep into its flesh and dissolved into the surrounding air, having done what they were intended for. "Stupid bear..." She ran to Sheba's side, and it wasn't a pretty sight. The bleeding was stopped by Felix, but the intense cold wasn't helping the young girl's condition. Felix's cure and Jenna's aura were having little effect on the completely shattered bone, but their spells did help the torn flesh. However, the frozen tissue would need constant spells to keep it warm; the cold was just too much, and at this rate, both brother and sister's psynergy would be depleted before they could reach Imil and more qualified healers.  
  
"What are we going to do?" Jenna wondered.  
  
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"Come on guys, hurry it up," shouted Isaac over the wind. He sighed, wondering what he was going to do. Jenna, Sheba, and Felix were far ahead of them; the snowfall was getting heavier and heavier. Suddenly, he felt wind swirling around him; his energy levels were increasing. Turning, he saw Ivan's Zephyr returning to the wind adept. Giving Ivan a thumbs up, Isaac ran with the wind itself.  
  
"Oi, Isaac's getting too far ahead," With that, Garet and Ivan rushed after him, using the same speed boost that Isaac had gotten through the Jupiter djinn's powers. Racing along the path, they pushed through the freezing winds. Even with the speed boost, the snow slowed the trio down. They had brought extra clothing, but even with it on, the harsh winds cut into their skin. Regardless, Isaac determinedly set one foot in front of the other.  
  
"Hey buddy, slow down a bit. Not everyone has strength like yours," said Garet half an hour later. Zephyr was wearing off and it showed.  
  
"Alright, we'll find some shelter and wait out this weather," replied Isaac, heading toward some rock formations that could be barely seen. "There might be a cave or something." The group was in luck; a small, sheltered area covered by massive boulders would be their home for the approaching night.  
  
Garet looked around and sighed, "This is a nice place, but I wonder how Jenna and the others are doing. Hope they found somewhere to settle in. So cold..." His Mars alignment was helping much, even his djinn were shivering. "Sorry guys, I'll get a fire started." Isaac managed to get some wood from outside their refuge. It was damp, but it burned with a little help from Garet.  
  
"Night guys." Ivan was the first to drop after an interesting dinner of barely thawed meat and slightly toasted bread.  
  
"I wonder where Felix and the others are," Isaac thought to himself. "I shouldn't worry about it, Felix has a level head." He crawled into his sleeping pad, "Garet, you have first watch."  
  
"Fine, fine" Garet replied and to himself. "I hope Jenna's alright"  
  
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Morning came quickly for the two girls and Felix. Jenna and Felix had taken turns keeping Sheba warm with Psynergy, but it had cost them one Psy Crystal already, leaving them with two left. In the time they had left to get to Imil, two wouldn't be enough, unless they got to Isaac and the other guys.  
  
"Come on Sheba, I'll carry you," said Felix. With Sheba on his back, he set out with his sister. They had quite a journey ahead of them. Snow was still falling, albeit not as heavy as the day before, making the trip arduous and difficult. "Good thing, you're pretty light."  
  
"I wonder where Garet and the others are. They said they would catch up to us." Jenna said. She looked behind them with concern etched on her face. Unbeknownst to her, they had passed Isaac and the others' small cave a mere quarter hour after setting out from their trees. "I hope nothing happened to them."  
  
The three trudged on, stopping only to keep Sheba's arm from completely freezing in the cold. Thankfully, the day was uneventful and they made good time considering the snow and weather. Still, Imil was a distance away and with Jenna and Felix's waning psynergy, there was no telling when they would run out and Sheba's wounds would worsen. Thankfully, the snow stopped for the night; the party grateful for a break in the weather. Hours later, as the cold got even colder, Jenna set up a fire and camp, letting Felix take a break after walking with Sheba on his back.  
  
"Still no sign of the guys..." sighed Jenna.  
  
Two days later, Sheba had strengthened enough to walk. Felix had used up all three Psy crystals that they had set out from Vale with. If there was one good thing about the cold, it was the fact that it stopped any infection from festering in Sheba's still painful wound. The bone was healing by itself, but it was excruciating at times on the girl's stamina and energy. Felix could only stem the pain. Only a Mercury adept's Ply could successfully heal cleanly broken bones.  
  
"Haven't seen any monsters in a while eh, bro?" commented Jenna as they drew closer to the spirals of smoke in the not too far away distance.  
  
"Knock on wood, oh...too late," replied Felix. Six oozes flopped out of the woods, spitting out goop at the three humans. "Gaia!" One of Felix's weaker Psynergies threw around the blue oozes, but did little damage. Sheba contributed with her Plasma and Ray attacks, too weak to do anything else.  
  
"You too stop it! I can handle these things, conserve your energy," said Jenna, launching a raging Pyroclasm to knock out all but one bouncing ooze. "Weak things, holy....uh oh..." Around 20 to 30 oozes had come together out of the woods and joined to create a super ooze, towering over the fiery Mars adept. "Shit...Imil's not too far off bro. Take Sheba and run and save your Psynergy. We don't know when you'll need it again."  
  
"We're not leaving you!" shouted Sheba.  
  
"Yes you are! Felix take her and go!"  
  
Felix saw that there wasn't any point in arguing with Jenna. No one could budge the stubborn adept if she didn't want to move. "It's alright Sheba. Fire works well against these water based creatures. Let's go." Saying that for himself as well, he scooped up the young Jupiter adept and took off at a run, leaving his sister to face a giant blue blob.  
  
The Big Ooze bounced toward the retreating figures of Felix and Sheba, but Vengeance shot six arrows, each flying true to the target. Liquefiers, Infernos, and Pyroclasms flew toward the monster. Jenna's attacks did nothing but enrage the ooze. It turned its attention to Jenna, launching a fearsome Ice Missile attack. Psynergetic advantages go both ways, fire is good against water but water is also good against fire. The ooze's attack sent Jenna flying into a nearby tree.  
  
"Oof...damn...that's a pretty strong blob. Coal! Kindle!" Her agility and attack boosted, Jenna unleashed Cannon, smashing into the ooze at near the speed of sound itself. She countered the next attack using Reflux, giving her four djinn on standby. "Meteor!" A rock from the heavens crushed the ooze, spraying snow and dirt everywhere. For a second, it seemed like Jenna had won, but the Big Ooze oozed back together into its original form and blasted Jenna with a series of Glacier and Ice Missile attacks. Her agility slowed by the massive amounts of ice and snow, Jenna took a direct hit by a long arm made of blue goo.  
  
"Shit...my Edge can't do a thing, I threw my best summon and psynergy at it. What the hell am I supposed to do?" Shaken, Jenna stood up only to be blasted by a Drench. A Glacier froze her to a tree, suspending her against the trunk with her feet dangling 3 feet off the ground. "Crap..."  
  
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Author's note: Cheesy name for the blob, but Big Ooze was the best thing I could think of...pretty predictable what's going to happen next chap, but I'll try to make it interesting...Suggestions? Reviews? Some sort of response from readers? 


	3. Summons

Oi...I feel like an idiot...I disabled anonymous reviews...my fault as a newbie... :P  
  
Anyway...thanks to Navy Blu for pointing that out...  
  
Do I really need to put up a disclaimer every chapter??? I don't own Golden Sun....  
  
=======Summons=======  
  
Two giant angels appeared in the sky. One was a complete mess of demonic armor and weapons. The other was the opposite, with big wings, shining armor, and a lion's head on its right arm. The powerful summons of Catastrophe and Judgment launched their attacks, big sizzling ball of evil power and big shining ball of pure energy rocketing down from the heavens at lightning speed.  
  
"Holy shit..." exclaimed Jenna. There wasn't anything else she could say. She had gotten the Catastrophe summon tablet late in their journey and had never seen it combined with the awesome might of Judgment, having never thought of it. The summons' attacks pounded the Big Ooze, spraying bits of it everywhere. Its concentration disrupted, the ice around Jenna melted, and she fell to the ground. "Ow..."  
  
Looking up, she saw her saviors and the demon and angel who they summoned. Who else but Isaac, Garet, and Ivan? Catastrophe vanished with a bang, while Judgment hovered around the tell tale scene of its power before sailing away into the spirit world.  
  
"You alright?" asked Garet, picking Jenna up by the arms. "Sheesh, you look a mess. What did that thing do to you? Good thing we got here as we did."  
  
"Actually, we would have gotten here sooner if Garet hadn't slept in for such a long time this morning. He was impossible to wake up," commented Ivan  
  
"Figures..." said Jenna. "Well, at least you guys are ok. I was beginning to worry about you three, especially you, oaf," poking Garet. Garet protested Jenna's words while at the same time trying to see if she was alright without being too forward.  
  
Isaac looked around, "Where are Felix and Sheba?" he asked. "It's not like Felix to leave his little sister to fight off a monster this big on her own, and Sheba wouldn't do that either."  
  
"I told them to make a run for Imil," replied Jenna, looking at the translucent blue blobs of the ooze lying around them. "No way..." The little bits were coming together again. Slowly the ooze was regenerating itself as more and more bits of blue goo came together. "We should get out of here! Nothing's supposed to be able to stand up to both Catastrophe and Judgment!" yelled Jenna.  
  
"Run from that thing? Yeah right," said Garet, drawing his Fire Brand. "Shouldn't be anything the four of us can't handle. Bring it on!" He charged, unleashing a Purgatory. The still forming blob managed to throw up a Drench, nullifying the attack. "What the...Pyroclasm! Liquefier!"  
  
Isaac and Ivan joined in. Tempests and Stone Spires hammered the monster. "Odyssey!" yelled Isaac. His most powerful attack struck the Big Ooze, tearing a hole that seemed to regenerate a little more slowly than the holes before did. Spark Plasmas and Liquefiers had the biggest impact on the creature, disintegrating bits and pieces of the monster. However, the process was slow and the adepts were tiring. Their most powerful psynergy could only do so much and it cost them serious energy. Isaac began to conserve his magic, only using his powers to heal and rejuvenate the other party members. His Gaia Blade and Titan Blade had little effect on the blob, but every little bit helped.  
  
"Ok...maybe this'll be a little harder than I thought..." said Garet, breathlessly, leaning on his Fire Brand. "At this rate, it'll take forever for this thing to go down."  
  
"What else can we do except keep on fighting?" asked Ivan, launching a Destruct Ray and unleashing Asura at the same time. He then used his djinn, Aroma, to replenish the party's waning psynergy and Breeze to give them a little more resistance to the multiple Ice Missiles and Glaciers. "Still, this thing must have a weak point somewhere."  
  
"Try to get around the back, Ivan. Garet, Jenna, and I will take care of the front and distract it. Go!" Isaac was hoping that there was some part to this thing that was weak. He knew that they couldn't go on forever fighting like they were.  
  
"Zephyr, give me a boost." Ivan dashed around through the forest, coming out behind the blob. Problem was, the back looked nearly the same as the front, minus the eyes. "Hmmm...Luff, seal its psynergy away for as long as you can." The djinn flew around the ooze and plunged itself into it, sealing away whatever produced psynergy in the monster. Satisfied, Ivan summoned Thor. The god of thunder himself came down from the clouds, throwing bolts of lightning at the ooze. Ivan studied each bolt and where it landed, noticing more convulsions came from the bolts that landed higher up near the horn on the ooze. Dashing around the still convulsing blob of jelly, he told Isaac what he observed.  
  
"Right. Garet, give us an attack boost, Jenna, standby all your djinn; we'll do a triple Meteor while that thing is in shock with its psynergy locked away. The head's the weak point, aim for it," said Isaac, although inwardly, he wasn't sure that even three meteors would work against this ever regenerating creature. The party leapt into action. Isaac started things off with a Grand Gaia, his most powerful psynergetic attack.  
  
"Hey!" A familiar voice sounded through the crisp air.  
  
"What the...is that who I think it is? Picard?" wondered Jenna. "Oi! What are you doing here?!?"  
"I was out getting some herbs for Mia and I got sidetracked by a Mauler cub that had hurt itself. I saw Thor come down about 500 meters off to my left, and I knew it had to be you guys. Oh crap...what is that?" Picard replied, and then he saw the Big Ooze. Apparently, Thor's effects were wearing off, but the ooze was reduced to throwing pieces of itself at others because of the psynergy seal. Picard dodged the flying piece of Big Ooze and drew his Excalibur. "Whoa..."  
  
"Picard, it's good to see you again, but we need a way out of this. Lend Jenna four of your djinn," said Isaac, looking greatly relieved that the Mercury adept had arrived. The Lemurian complied.  
  
"Got it Isaac," said Jenna, understanding what needed to be done. She closed her eyes, focusing on her psynergy and the thirteen djinn on standby within her and summoned the most powerful summon that she, and the entire party, knew. "Iris!" A heavenly angel descended from the sun itself, combined the opposing elements of water and fire into a colossal attack, formed with intense solar energy. There wasn't a stronger summon, and Iris, the goddess of rainbows and light, struck the flopping ooze with the might of the stars. The Big ooze was ripped apart, horn to non-existent feet, pieces flying everywhere only to be incinerated by the colossal amount of energy. There was no telling how the attack didn't affect the adepts at all, as they were all able to witness the destructive power of Iris without being harmed. The effects of the summon didn't stop there. Isaac, Garet, Ivan, and Jenna all felt regenerated and energized to some degree.  
  
"...well that wasn't too hard...did you guys really need to use Iris on an oversized blob?" asked Picard, looking at the fading angel in the sky.  
  
"Shut up..." said Jenna, bopping him on the head with a closed fist. "You don't know what that damn blob was made of."  
  
"Can you take us to Imil now? I could use some food and rest...especially food. The stupid storm ruined most of our food, so I've been living on toasted bread and Mauler meat," said Garet.  
  
"Yeah sure," replied Picard, walking down the path. "Where are Felix and Sheba?"  
  
"Down the road somewhere. I sent them down since Sheba was hurt and couldn't fight too well," replied Jenna. "Good thing Isaac and Ivan showed up, or else I would have been toast...or ice since that thing froze me to a tree before the others helped out."  
  
"Hey...I helped too. Catastrophe can't be summoned without my djinn!" said Garet, disliking that he had been left out.  
  
"Yeah, yeah, but according to Ivan, you could've gotten to me quicker if you didn't sleep so much!"  
  
"That wasn't my fault! Isaac made us walk half the night and we ran into a bunch of small oozes and dirges."  
  
"Small oozes and dirges made you sleep like a baby? You're a weakling and an oaf...and to think I was worried about you. Guess I was right to be."  
  
"You were worried about me?"  
  
"I said that 'cause I can't be mean to you all the time..."  
  
Ivan snickered, "Sure..."  
  
Jenna looked at him with a red face, "Shut it Jupiter boy. Don't get any ideas."  
  
"Really...then why is your face red?" replied Ivan.  
  
"It's cold! Your face is red too!" Jenna rubbed her arms and face for emphasis.  
  
"Right...whatever," said Ivan. He looked at the Venus and Mercury adepts walking ahead and ran ahead to join their conversation, leaving the two Mars adepts to their arguing.  
  
----------------------------  
  
After meeting up with Felix and Sheba down the road, the two had stopped to redress Sheba's wounds and wait for Jenna despite her command to go all the way to Imil; the party of now seven reached the second northernmost town of Angara. It was a beautiful sight. The newly fallen snow had given the town a pristine look with chimney's puffing smoke and kids having snowball fights outside with watchful parents watching from shops and homes. Imil didn't have gates or walls; animals never ventured near the giant lighthouse nearby and humans didn't bother attacking such a remote, but thriving, town.  
  
Nowhere else could a person in Angara find snow jewelry, precious jewelry made of stones that could be hollowed out to fit an ice crystal or snow that would never melt farther south due to the gems' exceptional freezer like qualities. Insane conditions such as the Lamakan Desert offered exceptions. Few places offered hospitality like Imil did, with their warm and festive inn. Maybe it was because few people visited, that the inn was in such good condition and that hosts were always warm and welcoming.  
  
"Isaac!" Mia threw herself onto her former leader, her arms wrapped around him. "You have no idea how much I've missed all of you." She hugged each person in turn, clucking in disapproval when she saw the state of Sheba's arm and Jenna's battle worn appearance. "What happened to you guys?"  
  
"Nothing really, just a couple bears and some blue jelly attacked us in addition to Garet's poor navigational skills," replied Sheba. Pointing to her arm she said, "This happened because of that freak storm and a lucky Mauler." After a little conversation and catching up between everyone, Felix suggested that they get settled in.  
  
"Right, come on in to the inn, I'll get you some rooms and Picard, Megan, and Justin can help you guys out with injuries or anything," said Mia. She led them to the inn. "I'll go see the mayor. Be right back." With a wave, she stepped out the door. Essentially a giant log cabin with some iron supports, the inn featured a large common room with three fireplaces and lots of soft armchairs, sofas, and tables. There were a few other visitors and travelers staying at the inn, but the isolated town was mostly made up of full time residents and long term merchants.  
  
Isaac and Felix got a room together, as did Garet and Ivan, Jenna and Sheba. Picard already had his own room in the inn which he had been staying in for the past year and a half. Having arrived late afternoon, the party shared a light dinner in the inn's dining area with Mia who had come back after meeting with the town elders. After several hours of talking about their past, present, and hoped for future, the adepts turned in.  
  
---------------------------  
  
The next day, Isaac and Felix woke up early for an early morning workout in the bitter cold of Imil. Morning came and went. The others woke up to find an already energized Isaac and Felix ready to explore Imil after more than a few months of being away from the beautiful snowy town. The two Venus adepts joined Mia on her daily rounds, checking on the health of Imil's people. The Water of Hermes may be keeping the people healthy, but Mia never wavered in her duties as the town's primary healer. Megan and Justin, Mia's two protégés often followed her around, learning more and more and becoming accomplished healers.  
  
The two approached Isaac, "Hey Isaac. Mia told us that you were the one who made her staff."  
  
"Yeah that was me," was the reply.  
  
"It looks really cool with that sapphire on top and the polished ivory wood. How long did it take you to make it?"  
  
"You should have seen him, sweating away in the blacksmith and the jewelers. He spent all his time making that thing in the six months before Mia left," said Garet. Isaac and he were waiting outside a house with the two adolescents while Mia checked out the inhabitants. "Sure was something special though, wish I could make something like that."  
  
"It was 4 months Garet, not counting the previous years of toying around with gem cutting and weapon making," replied Isaac. "It wasn't that good..."  
  
"Stop being modest."  
  
"Yeah, Isaac. We knew the real reason you made that staff," said the young mischievous adepts.  
  
"Uhh...you mean there was something beyond it being a parting gift?" questioned a puzzled Isaac.  
  
"Of course...o wait...never mind," the two said as Mia walked out again.  
  
"Mia, is there something going on today?" asked Garet. He was looking around, noticing that the people were acting a little strangely. Girls giggled and pointed at Isaac and Garet. Grown men walked by, throwing glances filled with respect at the two younger men. "People are acting strangely around us..."  
  
"Hm? Oh it's nothing. People are just a little shocked to see the heroes of Weyard walking around in our little town," was the reply. "Well, that's it for today's rounds. Is there anything you guys would like to do?"  
  
Isaac shook his head, "Nah, just take us somewhere, show us something interesting, introduce us to some people; doesn't matter what we do." Ivan and Sheba had disappeared to the Mercury Lighthouse to see how the lighthouse was doing. Also, Sheba had never seen the water aligned monolith. Jenna and Garet were exploring Imil on their own with the supervision of Felix, of course.  
  
The day passed uneventfully, evening coming around fast. The mayor invited the party to a welcome dinner starting around 7 in the picturesque town square. Predictably, it was far more than a simple welcome dinner. The town square had been set up with torches and heat lamps to help ward off the cold, but everyone dressed up in their warmest clothes anyway. Since outdoor events were rare, most of Imil's populace turned up to welcome the heroes of the world.  
  
Tables laden with food had been set up. Decorations had been hung around the square. Ivan looked around, "Is that a dance floor I see being set up?" Sure enough, an area next to the central fountain had been roped off with a shivering band sitting on a small stage off to one side.  
  
'Looks like tonight's going to be a good night! Just look at the food, feel the ambience, the giggling girls...hey, what was that for," said Garet.  
  
Isaac pointed, "Time to sit down with the mayor. Try to remember the manners your family tried teaching you, so you don't embarrass yourself."  
  
"Yeah sure, whatever." They approached the biggest table, giving their greetings and digging into fine Imilian fare. Garet managed to keep his usually terrible table manners down to a minimum, and even engaged in a friendly conversation with the mayor's daughter. Ivan began to speak with the other elders of the town about the state of the lighthouse that he had visited earlier in the day. Brother, sister, and Sheba politely excused themselves to go around table to table at the request of some of the townspeople. Isaac, Picard, and Mia sat together, talking about things with the mayor and his wife, the condition of Imil, Northern Angara, and other such news.  
  
"Hey, is that Garet dancing?" Mia asked. Isaac looked at the dance floor to see his best friend dancing with the mayor's daughter.  
  
Grinning, he said, "I never knew Garet knew how to dance." Picard laughed along, but he was taken away by a cute brunette. Soon the floor was crowded as the band began to play.  
  
"Isaac would you like to dance?" asked Mia.  
  
"Uh...I don't really know how..." replied an embarrassed Isaac. Having spent the majority of his time training and sparring with Felix, they were the only two people in the party who had never learned how to dance. Garet had learned from his family being in such a prominent position in Vale. Ivan and Sheba grew up in respected places, as did Picard. Jenna, being a fiery person, had learned as soon as she had known that there was something called dancing.  
  
"Oh, its alright. I'll show you how its done." Not taking no for an answer, Mia took Isaac by the hand and led him to the floor. Isaac picked up quickly enough, but it was still obvious he was pretty new at this kind of thing. He laughed as he noticed Felix was also being taught by the mayor's wife and several laughing girls.  
  
"You're pretty good for a beginner," said Mia, flashing an angel's smile.  
  
"At least I'm not as red as Felix is..." thought Isaac. He began to enjoy himself, relaxing for a few hours, something that he hadn't done very much. "Besides, Mia's looking pretty nice tonight...hey!" Isaac felt a Mind Read flow through him. "Ivan!" He felt Ivan's distinct psynergy.  
  
"Sorry, couldn't help it. You two were looking so intently at each other," said the Jupiter adept as he whirled by with Sheba in arm. He winked, disappearing into the crowd.  
  
Isaac sighed. He felt the music slow down, and he slowed accordingly with Mia in tow and looked around for his other friends. Ivan and Sheba had disappeared. Interestingly enough, Felix had gotten the hang of the music as well, settling down in the song with the mayor's daughter, all the while keeping an eye on Garet and Jenna. Picard was nowhere to be seen, but that could've been attributed to what Mia called, his giggling fan club, which had unofficially formed a week after his initial arrival.  
  
He felt and saw Mia's head rest on his shoulder. "Eh...don't think that. No don't think that either and definitely don't' think THAT...she's your friend, no more," Isaac thought. Her blue hair tickled his face, making him look upward to a beautiful crescent moon and a sky full of stars. There was a peaceful ambience as people swayed back and forth.  
  
"I'm glad you came to visit. I missed all of you so much, especially you," said Mia.  
  
"Me?"  
  
"Yes you..." Mia slipped into silence for the rest of the night, content to be in Isaac's arms. The song ended and Isaac, Felix, and Co. headed to their rooms, tired from an interesting day.  
  
------------------------------  
  
An uneventful two weeks passed. Isaac and Mia were almost constantly together, either by themselves or with a few other members of their world saving party. Garet learned some negotiation skills, sharpening up his leadership qualities for a future inheritance of the top job in Vale. Picard continued to study the Mercury element in the lighthouse. Jenna often tagged along with Garet or went around with her brother, making friends and doing some shopping for people back home. Ivan and Sheba did the same, but at the same time, they were troubled by their Jupiter sense.  
  
Something was happening or already happened, they just didn't know what. Seeing that their sense of trouble was fleeting and not very strong, the two wind adepts ignored their intuition, only to find a black raven flying in from the south, carrying an interesting message. A hastily scribbled message said,  
  
"_Vale, attacked by a hit and run. Thieves/bandits ran north. Suspect Lunpa involved. Bilibin and Vault attacked as well. Local adepts and soldiers no match for the sheer numbers of attackers and the surprisingly quick attack. Make haste and return to Vale for a meeting of local leaders. Be on guard for raids on Imil as well. Wyverns_." There wasn't a signature, but the handwriting was distinctly from Vale. The party was being summoned back home.  
  
====================================================

Author's note: that was an interesting chapter to write...not too satisfied with how I ended this chapter..., not too good with romance stuff either, its coming slowly... haven't played the game in a while, djinn and summons may be a little off in description and stuff....suggestions?


	4. Filler Chap

this'll probably by my last chapter for a while....likely the rest of the summer....I'll be out of town from July 19th, till August 27th....sorry about that...  
  
=======A Filler Chapter=======  
  
"Wyverns? Does this mean that those wyverns from back there are involved?" wondered Ivan. He reread the message with concern. Vale apparently hadn't come under too heavy of an attack and hadn't taken too much damage. The note also never mentioned what was stolen or damaged, so the party assumed that it wasn't serious. The fact that Lunpa had taken violent action against three separate towns cast an ugly shadow on the situation.  
  
Garet asked, "Isn't Lunpa that thief town? Didn't we set things right back on our trip around the world?"  
  
"We never visited Lunpa..." said Jenna.  
  
"It was just the four us. We set things straight with the town leaders though. Dodonpa was being an evil leader so we got his dad to put things straight," explained Isaac. "I wonder what the heck is going on now..."  
  
"Regardless, if Vale wants us back there, we should get going. It was our home that was attacked," said Felix.  
  
"The note mentions Imil," said Picard. "We might want to make sure this town will be alright before we leave."  
  
Mia looked up at Picard's comment; "Imil's located pretty deep in the mountains and it's really too cold for any large amount of people to come raiding. Felix is right. We should get moving."  
  
"Wait, we? You're coming with us?" asked Isaac. "Shouldn't you be here with your people in case wyverns or humans, regardless of Imil being isolated, attack? We'll leave Jenna behind with you to give this town a little more defense."  
  
"Hey! I want to see if Vale's alright too! You're most definitely not leaving me behind," replied Jenna.  
  
"We could just leave Jenna behind. Her voice could drive away any enemy any day." Garet got a serious red mark on his face for that. "I was just kidding...ow..."  
  
"We need to act. Whatever course of action we settle on, it should be done quickly. We don't know how much time we have or the extent of damages on Vale, Vault, and Bilibin," said Ivan.  
  
"Splitting up would be a good idea. We can send one faster group ahead and another group could stay behind, warning the people and making sure they're ready in case of any attack. Then the second group could either catch up or the first group can send a bird with a note saying where to meet," suggested Sheba. "This time, I'm not letting any Mauler get a hold of me."  
  
"That's a pretty decent idea, groups? Anyone want to leave first?" asked Isaac, taking command. "Sheba looks like she wants to go ahead, and uh...Picard, you'll probably want to escape that fan club of yours as quickly as possible." He pointed over Picard's shoulder at a pair of giggling girls hiding behind the fountain of the town square.  
  
"Yeah...good idea. I'll go with Sheba," replied a nervous looking Mercury adept.  
  
"Garet go with them too, Felix, they'll need someone trustworthy to lead them through the wilderness. I'll leave that to you," said Isaac. "Ivan, Jenna, and I can stick around for a bit. We'll catch up to you guys later." The four mentioned left, hurrying down the path toward an unknown situation.  
  
Isaac and the others left behind began to go around the city, telling the people of the danger of an attack, from wyverns and/or people. Some gifts were hurriedly made for the party of four by the people of Imil. No one wanted to see the heroes go after all that Mia and Picard had told them. However, seeing that it was inevitable, the people wanted to give them something to remember the town of Imil by. World-famous snow jewelry was given to the girls, tiny sculptures of ice that wouldn't melt in forever cold gems. The guys were content to receive words of encouragement and thanks.  
  
Mia arranged to have Megan and Justin take over all healing duties and become the town's chief Mercury adepts. Ivan made some last minute observations on the lighthouse. Isaac went over procedures with Imil's leaders in case an attack did happen, and the foursome was ready to go a day after the previous four had left.  
  
------------------------------  
  
"Have you used that staff in battle yet?" asked Jenna of Mia's staff. They were walking together ahead of Isaac and Ivan down the path. Goma Cave had been relatively easy the second time through; Mia's staff had the ability to give off rays of light like a torch, making it much easier to navigate around the still torch less maze. Also fortunately, not too many monsters had shown up in their path. A couple of dirges and goblins, but nothing the two guys couldn't handle by themselves.  
  
"Nope, I don't even have a name for it yet. Besides, it's too beautiful to hit some zombie with," Mia replied, twirling her staff. Conversation quieted as they reached Bilibin after a quick 6 days of travel. The gates to the town were still charred and some buildings showed new wood supports and walls. Most of the people ignored the four newcomers as they were busy with their own work and were still getting over the sudden attack from the week before.  
  
Ivan turned to the rest of the group, "We should get to the mayor's place and see what the heck happened here. We should be able to get some information on the attackers and stuff too." Agreed, Isaac, Ivan, Jenna, and Mia found their way to the mayor's palace which showed scorch marks. Earth and rocks were lying around the building. A few holes were evident in the walls, but soldiers still guarded the doors and the mayor and family were still around and unharmed.  
  
"What's with the scorch marks? Was there a Mars adept here?" Jenna whispered Isaac. The group leader and Ivan entered the mayor's room with Isaac wondering the same thing. The mayor told them that the thieves had attacked at dawn as the sleepy night shift of guards changed with the still waking up day shift. Most of the town was still asleep and were caught by surprise.  
  
"Damn those bastards. They tore down the weapon and armor shops, taking almost everything we had in those buildings. Thankfully, they didn't kill any civilians; just some concussions were handed out to those who tried opposing them. They came too fast and too strong," said the mayor of Bilibin. He looked weary, thinner than what Ivan remembered.  
  
Ivan asked, "How many attackers were there?"  
  
"No idea. Upwards of 300, heavily armed with lances, swords, and bows. All were apparently well trained. They attacked in three waves, in patterns, and they used cover well. Some of them waved their arms around and fire and rocks came out. No idea what that was, sorcery, black magic. They're devils, attacking a peaceful village with only a small garrison as a defense," was the reply.  
  
"Well organized....hmm... Isaac, what do you think?" Ivan looked at his blonde friend.  
  
"New Vale is bigger than Bilibin. I wonder how many soldiers were sent there... No doubt these were trained soldiers. Mayor, any idea who's these men were fighting for?" questioned Isaac.  
  
"Hell, they were all cloaked and masked, no idea. Vault and Vale have voiced their opinion that Lunpa is behind this. True, they have been quiet for a while since Donpa retook power from his son, but Donpa has no reason to attack three villages. Methinks that something happened and Dodonpa is back or it's just some new group that's intent on stirring up trouble. What troubles me the most is the beasts that they had."  
  
"Beasts?" asked Isaac.  
  
"Yeah beasts. Scary things they were. Big wolves and small blue and red dragons. Those flying lizards breathed ice and fire. We might have held out from our walls had it not been for those wolf riders and the dragons. Damn them! To hell with them! Those monsters killed all my best men and over 50 of the garrison." The mayor pounded his fist on the desk, shaking with anger.  
  
"Ice wyverns and probably fire ones too. Wolf riders though, that's new," commented Ivan. "Casualties? Sorry for touching on a sensitive topic, but we need to know if we're going to help and we need all the information we can get."  
  
"Out of my 80 man garrison, only 11 remain. Civilian casualties were low, only 14, but that's 14 more lives that I failed to protect!" He pounded his hands on his desk again, face contorted with anger and shame.  
  
"It's not your fault mayor, these were well trained fighters you were up against. By the way, have you seen another party of four led by a tall brown haired man and a girl about my age?" asked Ivan.  
  
"No, I haven't. You guys had best be on your way, my representatives are already at Vale. Young men and women like you are going to be needed with your bright minds to figure out what happened and deal retribution to those who deserve it." Taking that as a polite dismissal, Isaac and Ivan left the room and joined Jenna and Mia outside. Repeating what the mayor had told them, Ivan told the girls what they learned while Isaac brooded about what to do next.  
  
The troop gathered together some supplies and headed out a mere 3 hours after reaching Bilibin. Several days later, a raven found them after they exited Bilibin cave with a letter attached to its leg.  
  
"Vale is doing fine, nobody seriously hurt. No serious damage either. Get here as fast as you can have some urgent information that can't be risked in a bird message." –Felix  
  
Traveling even faster than they were before, Isaac, Ivan, Jenna, and Mia reached Vale in a record one day after leaving Bilibin cave. Ivan sensed something was not right.  
  
=============================  
  
A/N: bad and short chapter, only half the length of my other chaps...but I'm short on time and stuff so I'd thought I'd just get out something before I go out of town...flame me for leaving town if you really don't like me not writing :P 


	5. Shockwave

I'm very sorry for the long delay since July...been really busy....and school sucks too...so this chapter is a little longer for your enjoyment....

And by the way...in this fic, there are actually a lot of people in the Golden Sun world. The game didn't show too many except at big events like Colosso for obvious reasons.

-------Shockwave-------

"What we have here is a definite attempt to cripple the fighting forces of Northern Angara, New Vale, Bilibin, Vault, and Kolima" said Felix, pointing to the towns-expanding-into-cities on the map spread in front of him and the other seven adepts. The mayor of Vale was there as well, Garet's father. Kolima's news had only just reached them.

"The question is why," stated the mayor. "Why would Lunpa, regardless of whoever is in charge, attack four peaceful towns without any plausible reason? We've had no quarrel with them, but apparently Felix has some information that he wished to share when all of us were here together." He nodded toward all seven world-savers.

"That info is what I told you could not be shared in a bird message." Felix looked around at the door and curtained windows. "Ivan and Sheba helped me in setting up a fledgling information network in a few of the cities and towns around the world. Hama helped out as well, since she has the power to communicate over long distances with other Jupiter adepts."

"Sort of like a spy network eh?" asked Isaac. He looked at the two adepts mentioned. "When did this happen?"

Ivan replied, "Well we thought it might be a good idea to keep tabs on the more influential people in the world. Tolbi and Lord Iodem is an example. We started all this way back. It was Sheba's idea on our way back from Prox."

Felix pointed to Tolbi, "And this is where our troubles begin. Tolbi has stepped up training and recruiting of its army. It's now more than several thousand strong and still growing, quite an increase if you look at numbers beforehand. Our source found records dating to around the beginning of the construction of the Babi lighthouse. These records said the entire army numbered around 1500. There's been an at least three fold increase and that may or may not include their special units."

"Special units?" questioned Jenna.

"Units specially trained for harder operations, such as assassination, theft, etc." explained Felix. "However, that is just the beginning. Lalivero is on the warpath as well probably rebelling against Tolbi rule. They've united a bunch of people who are unhappy with the Tolbians. Apparently, with rumor running abound about our journey to save the world, suddenly the world thinks war and conquest is ok. I believe that since the leaders probably know what really happened or at least the important parts of it, they think that since the world isn't going to end or die, it's ok to go try to take it over. That's my best guess and I could be wrong. Regardless, lots of fighting's going to break out."

"What about Lunpa? And the attacks here?" asked Picard.

"I'll let Garet explain that part," replied Felix.

Garet cleared his throat, "First off, casualties included the visiting merchant caravan from Kalay and three quarters of the fighters in the area."

Isaac and Ivan interrupted, "Three quarters!!!"

Once again, Garet cleared his throat and continued coldly, "I said three quarters that were in the area. Terrible, but not a catastrophe. A third of our battalion was out scouting or escorting a caravan to Vault. 45 were out hunting. This left the guards at half strength and these people were split into three shifts, taking turns at their posts. The first shift was completely wiped out in the first 10 minutes of the attack. 45 good Valeans killed by a cowardly sneak attack." His face became colder and harder.

Ivan glanced at the others to see their reactions to a usually good-natured Garet and the news that some people they might have known were now dead. Stone faces stared at the floor or were fixed on the table. Knuckles turned white as fists were gripped. He looked back as Garet continued.

"No civilian casualties, but the blacksmith and his staff were knocked out. Much of the weapons and armor on display were stolen. The people also report seeing some of the raiders on big wolves. Some were used to carry off stolen goods and others as mounts. All of this happened pretty fast, only a couple of hours. Luckily, their aim wasn't to kill civilians, but we ended up losing 104 soldiers. That's the number as of an hour ago. We're still missing some bodies."

Ivan interrupted, "Do we know how many attacked?"

This time the mayor answered, "It was hard to take an accurate count, but from the innkeeper's basement window, the innkeeper counted a good 4 to 5 hundred raiders coming through the gate and past the psynergy stone fountain. All of them were decked out in dark colors, mostly black, so it made it hard to see where they might have come from. The only reason we have to think they were from Lunpa was that the only prisoner we managed to capture screamed out, 'Lunpa will rise again!' before committing suicide with a pocket knife he had."

Mia gasped, "Suicide?"

"Highly disciplined soldiers do that," replied Felix. "Their objective seems a little ambiguous right now. It looks as if they were just trying to get some more weapons and kill of some soldiers. And maybe instill some shock and fear in the people. The mayor says that some of the raiders also used psynergy."

"Yeah, we saw some quakes and growths go off and the wolves seemed to have their own brand of psynergy." Was the reply. "Some fires happened but we're not completely sure those were psynergy started," said the mayor.

Discussion continued for another hour. The party left deep in thought, and for the most part controlling their anger. The Valeans found it harder to do so but after their years on the road they had seen people die and knew that they couldn't do anything about people who were already dead, except of course, avenge them.

"Let's get some food and rest," said Isaac, abruptly, breaking the silence as the party reached the town square. The intact Psynergy stone fountain flowed, sparkling peacefully in the diminishing light, betraying the feelings of the town as they slowly repaired the damage done and tried to get over the loss of life.

--------------------

Over the course of the next week, leaders of Vault, Kalay, Bilibin, Kolima, and Vale met to discuss courses of actions. Bilibin and Kolima were all for rushing Lunpa with everything they had, which wasn't much but the mayors of both towns were sure that if they contacted Xian, their forces would be bolstered with excellent swordsmen and women.

However, Kalay and Vault were all for sitting around and repairing damages, setting up better defenses, hiring more adepts and soldiers, and fending off any other attacks. Vale sat in the middle ground. Felix, Isaac, and the mayor all agreed that waiting for more information and building up a sizeable force would be a wiser course of action.

"We cannot sit behind our walls like rabbits!" was the argument Bilibin and Kolima had. The others made the point that the two aggressive cites had been dealt severe casualties and were in no shape to attack a well defended fortress. There was also no guarantee that Xian would help.

Kalay had suffered no raids or damages to their city but they had lost an entire trade caravan. They, along with Vault, wanted no wars or battles despite the attacks. They felt that a strong defense would be everything they needed.

The five cities bickered for two weeks, the talks going nowhere. Finally, each leader left to talk to their people and deliberate with their respective advisors and trusted friends. Bilibin and Kolima said that they would raise an army and pay Lunpa for what they did.

"Stupid," said Felix. "There is no way that two towns who've lost their best fighting men can take out the Lunpa fortress. Even with Xian's technology and soldiers, they don't stand a chance and that's assuming Xian would even help."

"I never knew Xian had soldiers," said Mia as the party walked away from the town hall.

"They started after we saved the world...as did a lot of the towns and cities," replied Sheba. "Our shiny new network picked up all the draft listings and the numbers for some cites. Our information does tell us that Xian's soldiers were all participants in their martial arts program so they were pretty strong to begin with. But now, they have organization, commanders, and strategy. Luckily, the informant also told us that Xian has no hard feelings toward anyone."

"Unfortunately, Altin, that mining town-turned-city, is looking for room for its people. Expansion is definitely in their plans and all the good ground around them to the east and southeast is occupied, although sparsely, by Xian folk. Things don't look too good there either. Lama temple has adepts nearby but a few adepts don't match up to a few hundred strong miners who want more land for their families and ever growing city," continued Ivan.

"Looks like the world's going to erupt in lots of battles." Isaac grimly said. He wondered aloud, "What can we do? After all, we are some of the strongest adepts in the world, there has to be something we can do."

Felix thought about it and excused himself from their table in the common room of the inn to talk to the mayor. The rest of the party sat at their table, quietly talking and debating on what they could do to stave off the impending Angara-wide war. Isaac soon left to join Felix and the rest of the town elders and one by one each person drifted off to their respective living quarters or to find somewhere to relax, which was something each felt wouldn't happen very often anymore.

--------------------

Isaac, Picard, Ivan and Garet walked out of New Vale's gate two weeks later. They had helped strength Vale's defenses and helped to form Vale's fledgling guard. Each new recruit is required to go through at least two weeks of intensive training, accounting for the fact that they should already be in shape. The four young men were on their way to Vault to review the Vault volunteers and maybe add them to Vale's now 200 and increasing Vale Defense Force. It was a cheesy name but it stuck after Garet made it up and proclaimed it in the town square.

Furthermore, the four were to continue down into Kalay to review the trade situation there and visit Hammet and at the same time escort a trade caravan full of Valean goods. They said their good-byes and headed down the one and a half day road to Vault.

Eight hours later, Ivan noticed something while sitting in a tree eating a sandwich, "Hey guys, I see light reflecting off some metal in the distance. Some dust too." Isaac scrambled up and brought out his spyglass. Sure enough, metal points of spears glinted in the bright afternoon sun and their movement could be seen through the trees near a road that led to the main road from Vale to Vault. There were enough reflections that told Isaac that there were at least a few hundred people walking in the same direction as they were.

"Definitely not friendly by the looks of it," said Picard, looking through his own Lemurian spyglass, its power amplified with Mercury psynergy. "They're a couple miles off, but they're definitely heading towards Vault. A group this big should have seen from Vale, unless they skirted around as far as they could from our town."

"We should go warn Vault," Ivan said. His hand gripped his sword in its sheath and he was about to jump down when Garet appeared right beneath their tree.

"Umm...we have visitors," said the redhead, Fire Brand in hand. Two wolves with riders burst from the surrounding foliage as well as two rider-less beasts, snarling and teeth bared. One whispered a word, and a small Quake attack shook the tree. Picard fell, caught by surprise. The Lemurian caught himself and landed safely on his feet drawing his blade in a fluid motion at the same time. Isaac and Ivan leaped down as well unsheathing their weapons.

"Don't let any escape!" Ivan said urgently, "We can't let them warn their main party that there are fighters here. Impact!" Everyone felt their strength increase and their speed quickened as Zephyr zipped around them.

"Legend!" Picard's Excalibur unleashed a trio of psynergetic swords on one wolf. The wolf shook off the attack, damaged but not down. "Huh..." He was distracted by an incoming Fireball attack as globes of fire circled around the quartet and pounded them a split second later.

"Focus on the riders," commanded Isaac. Flint assisted him in knocking off a rider but he was thrown into a tree by the rider's furry steed. "Not a normal wolf..." Isaac bounded off two trees using Zephyr's speed and struck a beast with Bane. At the same time, he unleashed Ground to keep one of the rider less wolves off of Garet, letting the Mars adept unleash a torrent of fire attacks at it, finally finishing it off with the help of Ivan's Destruct Ray.

"Cybele!" summoned Isaac. A great spirit of the earth materialized, and it showered the enemies with dirt as great vines lifted them up into the air. "Not too high, we don't want other people to see them being carried up into the sky," whispered Isaac. As if the spirit had heard him, his opponents were only dropped from a distance of 50 ft instead of the usual 300. In spite of this, the rider who had lost his wolf was killed instantly and the other wolves had trouble standing up for a few seconds.

"Ice Missile!" Icicles rained at their opponents, mostly missing as the wolves ran behind trees for cover but it served to scare and intimidate. No one thinks or acts well when they have sharp blocks of ice racing past them. Having had enough, or maybe he thought that these four young guys weren't worth the trouble, the still mounted scout made a break for the open, running between Garet and Isaac, bowling over Ivan with incredible speed. Zephyr had worn off, leaving them helpless to act as the suddenly extremely fast rider rushed past.

"No, do something about him!" said Garet. "Inferno!" Multiple balls of fire rose up, splitting and increasing in number and these speeded toward the fleeing scout. Suddenly, something bowled into Garet's back as he was concentrating on his attack. He fell forward, his dozens of fireballs dissipating without a strong mind behind them. The Mars adept flipped around raising the Fire Brand astonished to see Picard on the ground next to him gasping for breath.

"What do you think you're doing? I was about to get that guy!" yelled a frustrated and angry Garet. "Are you-"

"Hey, you were about to be punctured by that thing's claws. I'd rather have that guy get away then have a friend impaled," said Picard calmly. He pointed to where a Titan Blade was just disappearing and the warrior Asura was receding back into the spirit world. The huge wolf, it looked even bigger when dead, was spread out on the ground with blood gushing out of its massively torn side.

"Dire wolf...much stronger than any normal beast" Ivan said. "They've been seen over on the Kolima and Fuschin side of Angara, but I didn't know they were on these bastards' side. We'd better get moving to Vault. We don't know how many more there are." Sheathing his sword, he helped Garet get up, and followed Isaac and Picard who were already jogging at a brisk pace toward the town where Ivan had first met Isaac and Garet.

--------------------

"Go warn the mayor! There are armed men coming here!" said Garet urgently at the guard on Vault's newly finished wooden palisades. A guard disappeared from the top of the wall and the four rushed through the gate. They found about 40 men lined up. "Who are you?"

One guy stepped forward, "We are the volunteers for the Middle Angaran army, waiting for inspection and permission to head to Vale. Our men saw you running here from the main road."

"Uh...Middle Angaran Army? That's worse than our VDF," thought Ivan.

"We don't have time for that, how many fighters are here?" asked Isaac.

"75 sir! Enough to hold off any attack!" was the answer. Isaac looked at him, frowned and shook his head.

"75 won't be enough; we should evacuate the town as quick as possible. There are a few hundred enemies headed here, and we need to keep as many of you alive as possible," said Isaac. He gestured for Garet to go talk to the approaching mayor and his group of advisors and for Ivan to go warn the civilians. "Picard, what do you think?"

"Evacuating is probably the best thing to do. There's no way 75 can hold off 100 dire wolves or whatever else is there," replied Picard. Garet ran over.

"The mayor thought this might happen so he's given the order to evacuate to a shelter outside of town. What are we going to do?" Garet looked at the Vault soldiers escorting the town's citizens down past the inn and what looked to be a back gate.

"We'll help them get to safety and decide from there," replied Isaac. Ivan came back and the four of them tried to keep Vault's people calm as they abandoned their homes to an invading force of raiders. "If we're lucky, they'll just take what they need and leave..." said Isaac to no one in particular, an hour later as the raiders moved into the city.

Unfortunately, nothing seemed to be working for them. Fire and smoke rose into the sky, a beacon that could be seen for miles around.

"Damnit. They're burning the town...Why aren't they looking for the people?" said Ivan.

"Vault..." The mayor asked as he looked in horror on his burning town. "All that work for years and now it's all gone..." He was left speechless as everything he had worked for was ended by a single gesture from a dire wolf rider.

"We should get these people to Vale or Kalay once the road is clear," said Picard. "These people need somewhere to go, and Vale is the closest town." The mayor glumly nodded and motioned for his people to gather what belongings they had gotten out of the town and prepare to set out as soon as the sun went down. They agreed that moving under the cover of darkness was best; they would be less noticeable, though a group of over 600 people was hardly easy to hide. Moreover, the raiding party would be tired from their pillaging so it would be easier to run and hide.

Five hours later after they all had a bite to eat and gotten some rest, the village of Vault set out through the woods in several straight lines. The raiders had left in the direction of Lunpa 3 hours ago at a brisk pace. They apparently had plenty of discipline and order within their ranks. The black robed soldiers retreated quickly and efficiently, loading up their mounts with stolen gear and getting out seemingly without care that they had attacked an abandoned town.

"This worries me...why attack and burn a village that obviously knew they were coming?" wondered Ivan. "It doesn't make sense. If they were going to burn a town as a warning to the rest of Angara, Vault is too small for that kind of thing. I'm also bothered by the fact that they never sent people to look for us and the civilians."

Isaac answered, "Yeah, I've been wondering the same thing. It's strange and it makes me wonder if we're walking straight into a trap. I would have preferred to head toward Kalay, but the mayor was pretty adamant about going to the nearest haven. I hope that doesn't cost the lives of all these people."

Garet looked at the dark sky. "We should get there by noon tomorrow. Normally we could make it by mid morning but with this group, I'm not sure." They marched on, providing protection for the large group's right flank as they headed north.

--------------------

Felix drummed his fingers on the crenellations of Vale's gatehouse. The stone structure had its final stone put into place yesterday, and Vale's guardian wasn't feeling at ease. Sheba running toward him only confirmed his suspicions.

"I sense a huge party of people coming this way, and I can't tell if they're friendly or not. There are some strong adepts among them too," said an anxious looking Sheba. She gazed into the distance down the main road. The two were on duty for the second half of the night, both voluntarily after not being able to sleep. "Should we go scout them out?"

"Yeah, just the two of us. You have the Teleport Lapis?" asked Felix. He grabbed his Sol Blade and the two teleported down, taking with them just their weapons and leaving a note.

The pair rushed down the path. An hour later, slightly exhausted but rejuvenated through the Jupiter djinn Breath, they saw the Vault mayor leading a large bunch of people up the road toward Vale. "What the..." said Sheba. Confused, she looked at Felix, then at the group. "Hey look! Isn't that Garet?"

"So it is, I wonder why they're with all these people from Vault..." replied Felix. "Especially at this time of night." They watched as Garet went to the front of the column to talk to the mayor. "Did you get any word of a mass exodus from Vault?" He asked Sheba.

"Nope. Strange, usually something this big would be reported. If Garet's with them then Isaac, Ivan, and Picard should be somewhere here too, and if they're here then it should be alright," was the reply. Sheba straightened, "I'll go back to Vale and bring an escort for them. It looks like their going to Vale and a group this big shouldn't be walking around with only 4 adepts as guards."

"I'm going with you. They'll wonder where I am and it'll be easier for me to get a bunch of our men together," Felix said, which was true, since Sheba knew little about the organizational structure of the VDF or the men who were at the core of it. The two teleported off into the night, speeding through the air back to Vale instantaneously with the power of Psynergy.

--------------------

The rays of Sol broke over the treetops, shining on a large group of tiring families, guards, children, and adepts. They may have saved the world, but Isaac and Co. were still human. Isaac and Picard were providing rear guard, watching intently at their backs and at the trees around them. All it took was a few good archers hidden away and a few of Vault's people would be lying on the ground. Such a thing was unlikely but one never knew what could happen. Garet suddenly appeared from the long train of people.

"Guess what?" he asked.

"What..." Isaac and Picard said in unison.

"We have some visitors. Felix found out that we were bringing an entire town with us and he got us an escort from Vale. At least we can relax a little bit now" was the reply. The blonde and the blue-haired adepts sighed, thankful that Felix was such a great leader. Their peace was interrupted by a loud horn. The sound rang through the dawn sky. Garet looked into the woods, "What the hell..."

30 wolves erupted from the right and rear. Their riders unleashed a torrent of psynergetic attacks. Quakes, Fires, and Growths shook the ground. The women and children started screaming, husbands tried to calm their families and those who had weapons drew them, doing their best to defend their kin.

"Garet, get the civilians together and have them make a run for Vale. Picard and I can deal with these monsters," commanded Isaac.

"I'm not leaving the two of you here!"

"Yes you are! Go now!" Isaac threw himself at three wolf-riders who were harassing a young woman and her children. He tore threw one with pure sword work, unleashing Titan Blade on another. Picard joined the fray with his Excalibur. His Ice Missiles were especially useful in keeping enemies on their toes, dodging his cold, deadly attacks.

Garet gulped, launched some Eruptions and Fireballs, which didn't require quite as much mental strength as his higher end attacks, and dashed toward the middle of the civilian group as he tried to restore order and fend off attacks on the people at the same time.

Some foot soldiers ran out of the forest, spears lowered, black shields covering their bodies from civilian archers. They came in organized formations, spears not letting any one get too close as a mage in the center of each formation unleashed a whirlwind of attacks. Civilian deaths started to mount as the chaos was completed with the screaming and running of women, children, and older folk. All the men, as were some women, were trying to fight off the attackers but they were untrained country people, unskilled in the ways of battle with superior forces.

"Quake Sphere!" Isaac's psynergy rippled through the trees as enemy archers dropped from branches and limbs, and hopefully breaking their limbs or cracking their necks. His swordsmanship was fluid as always. Combined with Picard, they formed a circular dance, their swords reaching out as they spun with each other, tearing up one enemy box formation. Isaac found the mage at the center; he reached out and grabbed the front of his robe. Their eyes met coldly, and Isaac, seeing discipline and a hardness behind the eyes, beheaded him without care. He had watched this very mage send SIX consecutive Beam attacks at one Vault soldier, each attack burning the brave soul's chest and torso and sending him into convulsions from the intense pain of pure fire blasting into his body.

Picard and Isaac separated, each coming in from different directions to attack another box of enemies. The mage screamed and the soldiers packed together even more closely, resembling a porcupine. Dirt and rocks materialized from the sky as Spire attacks were launched at the two advancing adepts. Isaac sidestepped, dancing nimbly between each rock, slashing spear points with his lethal Gaia Blade.

Picard did his part as well; Shade shattered each spire that fell. Frost fell on the enemies spears, and he threw a grenade that Garet and Ivan had developed based on the smoke bombs they had picked up on their travels. The grenade exploded in fire and electricity. The ice shattered instantly, as did the formerly freezing wooden spear shafts, metal points dropping uselessly to the ground. He charged in, Excalibur tearing through bodies and his Dragon shield bashing through heads and light armor.

The two continued to fight, but they had their limits and seemingly endless amounts of enemies were filtering on to the now bloody battlefield.

--------------------

Felix looked on grimly as the enemy on his sword slid off. No one in his party liked killing people. They had all done it at some point, but no one felt good about it. His Odyssey crashed into a rider and his wolf, and Felix charged in. His eyes glowed with the power behind the most powerful single Venus psynergy. It was the only single attack that could kill a rider and his wolf, they were just that strong. Throwing aside another foot solider, he turned to lock swords with a large brute clad in black. The guy carried two throwing axes in his belt. Looking carefully, Felix saw that there were spaces for two more. He rolled out of the way as the sword rushed by him and thumped on the ground. Felix set his teeth, threw himself at his opponent, sidestepping right as the enemy jumped past him and landed a crucial blow at the neck.

Panting, Felix didn't notice an archer take aim at his torso from fifty yards away. "Damn," he said when an arrow half punctured his Valkyrie Mail, he quickly casted Ragnarok. "Must've been a super powerful bow and arrow set..." He felt no blood, but was worried that maybe after a year of not cleaning and using his armor, it was getting old. He tossed the arrow aside and watched Ivan clear out a whole grove of trees and archers with one Spark Plasma. "Ouch..."

The Vale Defense Force was doing well for its first major engagement. They engaged, pulled out, engaged again, and pulled out again. These actions allowed the enemies to frustrate and tire themselves out and at the same time take up their attention so the civilians could get away. They started to copy the enemy strategy of box formations and found out it worked brilliantly, as the enemy forces never thought they would work against their own tactics. But numbers were against the VDF. Only 60 soldiers had come out with Felix (Sheba had stayed back to organize a welcoming committee) and they were heavily outnumbered.

Ivan weaved through bands of enemy men in the woods, taking out select officers and mounts with his Jupiter psynergy. Today was the first day that he was fighting with two blades. He had trained far more in swordsmanship than the others as he was the weakest when they first started out. Now, he handled the Kikuichimonji in his right hand and the Phaeton Blade in the other. They were the only two swords that were fit for his light build. Light Surges howled from the Phaeton Blade, though it was a katana like the Kikuichimonji, and the warrior, Asura, swept out of the spirit realm to wreck havoc among the enemy raider bands. Ivan knew he worked best alone or in small groups, fighting like a scalpel, slicing off men and beasts to help others fighting the bigger battles. He grimaced as he killed five men in a combo of his swords and Shine Plasmas.

Garet was having trouble, girl troubles. Lots of women refused to leave their fighting husbands. Their staying caused confusion as allies tried to avoid them and enemies tried to use them as hostages. He grunted as he threw off an axe-wielding berserker. He sighed; there was no end to this. They had been fighting for two hours and both sides were tiring but not letting up. "Pyroclasm! Inferno!" Four more enemies dropped, their armor and clothing seared away. An arrow flew by, nicking him in the cheek; "Shit..." He applied an herb, quickly healing the wound and threw himself back into the fray.

He was tiring. It showed in his fighting. After guarding a large group of people, he was in no shape to be fighting for the time they had been fighting the enemy band. Panting, he threw up his sword to block an incoming great sword. The metal rang across the furious battlefield. Civilian numbers were starting to drop and the number of enemies wasn't decreasing fast enough. He turned, slicing through the enemy's armor and into his gut. The sword lingered in the body for two seconds as Isaac stopped to catch his breath. Those two seconds were two seconds too long. An arrow zipped into his thigh, reaching the bone and splintering it. Isaac fell, his right hand gripping his Gaia blade and dragging it out of the dead body. He slammed into the ground as an enemy rider smashed his back. Thinking he was dead, the rider rode off.

"The night march must be getting to me..." thought a weary Isaac. He judged that at least 2 hours had passed since the battle started. "Potent Cure..." Nothing happened. "Damn, must be drained..." He pulled himself up tiredly, lifting his sword as a quartet of spearmen closed in on him. Picard was busy dealing with two riders; Garet was protecting a family as they tried to flee the scene and his strength was obviously flagging. Ivan and Felix were nowhere to be seen. A dreaded thought passed through Isaac's mind. "Are there too many enemies to be handled? Am I going to die?" He had rare thoughts of death being imminent, but this was one time where it seemed closer than ever.

A spearman lunged, his leaf shaped blade reaching out and poking Isaac's increasingly heavy armor. Another spear found Isaac's left shoulder, scraping the armor and pushing Isaac around. The adept was out of psynergy, and he threw his belt knife at one enemy, lodging it in his throat. His hands came up with the Gaia Blade and blocked one spear, only to have another come in low. Isaac jumped out of the way and smacked his head right into the shaft of another whirling spear.

"Damn..." Dazed, Isaac could only make weary blocks. He saw out of the corner of his eye that VDF soldiers were falling. They were too inexperienced and new at fighting such great numbers. Too many black clocked soldiers were hacking at too few allies. Something punctured through his right boot and Isaac went down for good, the thigh wound and the bleeding foot too much for his fatigued body. The last thing he saw before blacking out from blood loss was a sharp metal leaf descending on his neck.

--------------------

A/N: Hmmm...that took forever to write...


	6. Revival

I don't seem to be getting very many reviews....but props to Navy Blu for being a great supporter of this story... :P

My first OC's appear!

Anyway...I'm sorry for the slow updates...school is bad and such...

----------Revival----------

He had been fighting for the past hour with his three comrades, but now they were three, one of their numbers was on the ground with a knife lodged in his throat. He grimly raised his spear and swung across the air and scored a hit on the young fighter he was struggling with. This man had been giving him some problem, his sword blocking most of his lunges. He had watched this soldier decked out in his golden armor rip apart his army's box formations and his black cloaked friends. The spearman knew most of the people he was fighting with, and it didn't please him that many of them had died at the hands of this skilled warrior. It didn't matter; he was going to end this miserable wretch's life.

"Revenge is mine!" The spearman drew up his spear into the air and plunged the razor-sharp leaf blade at the now unconscious body. Blood spurted.

But the blood didn't spurt from the neck where he had been aiming. Instead, there was now a gash in Isaac's left arm, where blood flowed freely. Cursing, the black robed soldier looked up to see what had interrupted his sweet revenge. A ghostly animal figure hovered in the air 50 ft in front of him. He threw a knife at it, the blade passing through it like mist. The blue thing looked at him and suddenly launched more psynergetic blasts of water, each projectile slamming into him, throwing him around but the attacks were weak against someone who had trained much of his life for battle.

"Damn animal threw off my aim!" He cursed some more, but as suddenly as the Mercury djinn had appeared, it disappeared. He didn't know where it had gone, so he turned his attention to the now bleeding unconscious body. The spear went up; he paused as he savored the moment of killing an enemy who had killed many of the men he had known for years. The thin blade came down again.

--------------------

Sheba, Mia, and Jenna raced into the fray with all of the VDF except for the bare minimum needed to protect the town of Vale itself. Their sudden arrival surprised the warriors who had been battling for the past three hours. They smashed onto the battlefield, cheered by their weary allies. The enemy turned to see this new opponent, but they were routed. Fleeing into the woods, they ran for their lives. Discipline was now forgotten as the arrival of 150 more soldiers was enough on their battle fatigued spirits.

Mia's staff shone a brilliant light as torrential winds and water ripped down the path, clearing the way for Vale's soldiers of dead and live bodies alike. She saw Isaac about to be stabbed in the distance. "Fizz! Go keep him alive!" The djinn sped off and rained healing water on the body of Isaac in half a second. In the other half, it summoned Mercury, a ghostly version of itself. The djinn spirit hammered the soldier with heavy projectiles of water, but the damage wasn't enough to get the soldier to back off. The spearman raised his spear and made to thrust the spear into Isaac's neck.

Mia shouted, "Typhoon!" Again, driving rain and winds swirled above and struck the soldier with such force that he flew quite a distance and smashed into a very sturdy tree, sliding down and lying still. The force also pushed Isaac against the dirt path, worsening his wounds. She ran to him, disregarding all the enemies who stood in her path. Some got broken skulls, others were blinded by ice and water, and still others died at the hands of a very angry and concerned Mercury adept.

She reached her leader's side and quickly assessed his critical situation. He had no psynergy left and his djinn were exhausted. The enemy force was apparently pretty tough to leave her Isaac in this state. "Pure Ply." The strongest healing spell known to any adept washed over the still body. To make sure her loved one was ok, she raised her staff. The opposite of the Typhoon unleash, Ocean's Calm, cleansed Isaac's body and healed his wounds. Satisfied, Mia stood up and called for some nearby VDF combatants to take their co-commander to safety.

-------------------

An hour and a half later, the weary party of men, soldiers, and adepts dragged themselves through Vale's gates and into a sanctuary where the citizens had gathered to help the town's new arrivals. Gasps escaped many of the Valeans, even though they hurriedly tried to cover their mouths. Most of them leaped into action, tending the wounded and comforting the families with dead kin.

The number of VDF soldiers had decreased by 60 soldiers, the one and a half platoons that Felix had initially taken out decimated by Lunpa forces. The damage was noticeable in the number of stretchers being carried with the dead and wounded. Even worse was the number of people from Vault. Isaac, Garet, Ivan, and Picard had left Vault with over 600 people and some of the spectators estimated that now there were only 250-300 left. Vault had taken horrendous losses.

Dora screamed, "Isaac!" She rushed over to the stretcher that Garet and Felix were carrying. Isaac was still out cold but his breathing and pulse were steady. The townspeople looked on as a crying mother embraced the still body of her son.

--------------------

A week passed. Shelters were erected for the new Vault/Valeans who couldn't fit in the inn and the houses of generous Valeans. The mayor of Vale oversaw that each surviving member of the now non-existent Vault was taken care of and given temporary positions in Vale's workforce or defense force. He knew that being busy and working would at the very least take their minds off of the numbing horror they had been put through.

Felix supervised the training of the new and many recruits of the VDF. Thankfully, casualties were not as terrible as initially estimated; 384 had made it back from Vault instead of the assumed 250-300. Many of the casualties were whole families and couples who had stayed together on the battlefront. Most of the refugees volunteered to be part of the VDF, determined to defend their families and new friends. They wouldn't take anymore of being beaten around because they lacked proper training and equipment. With the Vale Defense Force, these men (and women) could receive first-rate training and superb gear.

Isaac recovered, thanks to his own hardiness as well as Mia and Dora's constant supervision. With two women like that in his life, who has a chance to die? However, he wasn't very happy with his being knocked out during battle, something he had been accustomed to doing on his journey that only ended months ago. Isaac vowed to train harder and to protect those who needed protecting with his fullest potential.

Soon, discussions were under way to talk about what to do. Lunpa, it was obviously Lunpa because of the logos on the uniforms, had destroyed an entire town and half of its inhabitants. Some hard-liners were all for forming up an army from all the people around the area and heading straight for Lunpa Fortress with Bilibin and Kolima. Others wanted to sit around and lick wounds for a while before building up a sizeable army.

"We cannot attack with what we have now, but if we were to join up with Bilibin, Kolima, and the other small towns around here, we could smash Lunpa!" exclaimed the former mayor of Vault. "We have men and we have sufficient supplies."

"Lunpa is nestled in the mountains. There is only one way into their citadel and we don't have enough properly trained men to assault it. Our men need training with siege weapons, psynergy for those who have it and general tactics and strategy. We do not know if Bilibin and the other towns have the equipment or the training necessary for siege warfare," was the reply from Felix.

"Do we have war plans?" asked one man.

"Yes, but I will not discuss those with anyone right now. I propose that we send out men on the mission that Isaac, Picard, Garet, and Ivan intended to do, visit Kalay and its surrounding towns to recruit men and gather information," replied Felix. The next day envoys went out from Vale toward the big towns of Bilibin, Kolima, Xian, Fuchsia (formerly known as the Fuchin Temple), and Kalay. There was to be build up of forces and weeks of intensive training to first, fend off any more attacks, and second, to destroy Lunpa once their army was ready. Even Felix, who didn't like war, was not ready to forgive the death of so many innocents.

--------------------

The middle aged man sat in a large comfortable chair. He read the reports sitting on his desk. Sighing, he rose and turned to the large window at his back. "Why can't they get things right? Is it really so hard with all the power we have?" It was a puzzling thought. Even with all training, preparation, and motivation, his army couldn't function like it was supposed to. "Give me Li and Nicoli!"

Summoned, a dark haired man walked in through an adjacent door to the main office. "Yes?" Li glanced at the papers on the desk, his boss' irritated face, and said, "Bad reports?"

"Damn right... You're in charge of military operations. Explain this!" Dodonpa wasn't outraged by the fact that his little raiding force had failed in its secondary objective, but he was noticeably irritated by the fact that his well-trained and supplied soldiers couldn't kill off all of Vault's measly civilians. A moment later, Nicoli walked in. He was opposite of Li, extremely tall, he was out of place in the caves of Lunpa. His blond hair contrasted with Li's black, but his brain was hardly lacking.

He looked at the two other men in the room, "Let me guess, did our Vault attack fail?"

Dodonpa answered, "No, we succeeded in taking all the goods and material we needed and we burned the town to the ground. We did not however, erase the people off the map like we intended too."

"It was a secondary objective, hardly anything of importance, except the question of how were they stopped? Bad weather? Enemies?" asked Nicoli. He looked at Li, who gave him a passive face that showed no emotion. "Typical," Nicoli thought.

"Our only captain that survived reported that Valean soldiers stopped their attack. He also says that there was lots of psynergy and adepts involved, and despite our force being 4 battalions strong (A/N: 1 battalion-100 soldiers) we were driven off by these VALEAN soldiers, disgusting weaklings compared to our troops. Both of you! I want analysis now," Dodonpa commanded. He was starting to get pissed as he hated Vale with a passion.

His drive for power and control over Northern Angara had started when his father was struck with an illness that kept him in bed. Luckily for him, Mt. Aleph erupted, sending Hammet up to his city for shelter from the still falling rocks and newly created monsters. Dodonpa had planned to use him as a hostage but some damn Valean adepts had gotten in his way and his plans for raising an army out of Lunpa's many thieves and mercenaries. This time around, he had his army, and it was growing. Lunpa's rich resources and reputation attracted many people looking for quick money and the city provided refuge for the law-breakers on the run.

"What were Vale forces doing around there?" Nicoli asked the first question after reading the reports. He tossed the papers to Li, who quickly scanned the first page.

"What is this about several adepts in the woods a few hours prior to the attack?" Li said, and then thought for a second. "Perhaps it is these people who warned Vault so the citizenry could escape. Smart of the captain to send some backtrackers to see if the people would come out of hiding after the burning...I don't understand. Are Valean forces that formidable? Is it possible that the captain didn't see soldiers from other cities?"

"Possible, but unlikely," said Nicoli. "I pick only our best and observant men to be captains." The big light-blonde haired man was in charge of officer training among other things. Li had the basic training division and the intelligence command. "It is possible though that we have underestimated the fighting ability of these adepts...as well as Vale." Nicoli was no adept but since he saw the blue beam of light from up north crossing the sky and forming a beacon over Vale, he had been able to sense the use of Psynergy around him and see most of the physical attacks. His skill with the rapier and his quick brain were the main reasons he had gained such high rank in Dodonpa's army.

Li finished reading the report. "He states the fact that there were multiple extremely strong adepts. Can these be the ones who rescued Hammet a few years ago?" Li had been with Dodonpa for several years now, and the two were the masterminds behind the plan to gain power and wealth for Lunpa. "Regardless we can use this information and start training our troops for battle against this Vale Defense Force. Also, we can expect retaliation from the other cities. We haven't been as careful as we could have been in our raids. I have reports saying that Bilibin and Kolima are readying forces to attack us."

"Humph. Let them come. They have almost nothing left. You are sure Xian will not interfere?" Dodonpa asked.

"They are too far away and what happens here will not concern them. Besides, they probably won't care until its too late and we have all of Northern Angara under our control" was the reply.

"Okay, then we'll continue with Operation Mauler. Get the units moving! I want them out of here by tomorrow." Dodonpa dismissed his two chief advisors, "This isn't going as well as I thought, but it's not like I didn't anticipate problems." He sighed. His father had died, leaving the control of Lunpa in his hands. Most of the people in Lunpa were following along with his plans and strangely enough, they also supported his raiding parties, though they had no idea where their husbands, brothers, sons were going. It was strange, but Dodonpa brushed it off by as patriotism or simple greed. "Hmm..."

--------------------

Mia was feeling uneasy. Isaac was well and training harder than ever with Garet and Felix. He was by no means her worry. Something was wrong, but she couldn't do anything but brush it off. She returned her attention to the two on two battle, Felix and Isaac vs. Garet and Ivan. The Venus adepts had the upper hand but the other two were no slouches at combat. At the moment, it was Isaac vs. Ivan and Garet was fighting Felix. The dulled iron blades could hardly deal mortal damage, but every hit hurt.

Ivan's twin swords swung in from opposite sides as he dived toward Isaac. The Venus adept dodged left, swinging his sword at Ivan's back as it rushed past him. Suddenly, Ivan dropped low to the ground, Isaac's sword whooshing above him. He kicked out with his legs right at Isaac's left leg. As he fell, Isaac twisted and pushed off the approaching ground with his right arm, rolling left. Ivan was on top of him, swinging and poking with one sword. Blocking desperately, Isaac managed to get a swing in, knocking Ivan off balance using his superior strength.

Garet was holding his own against the formidable Felix. His heavy sword danced patterns through the air, but each time met with a clang the sword of the older Earth adept. He spun on one leg, aiming low but missed as Felix stepped back. The older fighter took the moment to adjust his stance. Garet recognized it as one of Felix trademark sword stances. The hilt brought up to his right ear and his right leg a couple of feet in front of his left, knees slightly bent and the blade angling downward. He charged silently, the blade seeming to move forward but it suddenly darted left, and then right. Garet parried grimly, but Felix suddenly spun mid-movement and connected with the Mars adept's side.

Isaac flipped up off the ground, his sword barely up in time to block the young Jupiter adept's twin swords. Ivan was quick, working his blades in tandem and balance, giving Isaac few chances to go on the offensive, occupied as he was fighting off Ivan's swift blade work. Quick as lightning, Ivan's arm and blade moved as one and snuck to Isaac's neck, but just as quick, Isaac saw an opening and moved his sword to Ivan's neck. He grinned. "Draw?"

"Hehe, this is the closest I've ever gotten to beating you," replied Ivan, which was a fact and it also showed how much the younger guy had improved over the years. He looked over as Felix pointed his sword at Garet's throat on the ground. Their practice over, the four walked off with Mia fussing over all the bruises they had managed to collect.

Suddenly, a messenger ran up, saying that there were a bunch of new arrivals at Vale's gate and that Mia might want to meet them. He also said that it was urgent and that all the adepts should meet up at the gate. Wondering what was so causing so much commotion, the five hurried over to the large town square. Mia gasped at the scene in front of her.

There were dozens of Imil residents sprawled out in front of her. Many were injured, and there was no telling how they had managed to make the difficult journey from their far-flung city. Many of the residents were missing; families were without the fathers, mothers, and children that Mia remembered. "What happened?" she thought. A horrible thought crossed her mind, "Was Imil attacked? Is my hometown gone?" Her hands went up to her face and she started to cry. Despite all the pains and tribulations that she had withstood over the years, this was too much.

--------------------

A/N: Hmm...hope I don't chase people away with Vault destroyed and Imil on the verge of destruction. Please review, suggestions, criticism, random comments, anything is helpful.


	7. Survivors

More OC's!

hmm...i seem to be updating relatively quickly....maybe thats why my grades are dropping...:P

I realized that I've forgotten about Jenna's parents and Isaac's dad. Just pretend they...uh...didn't survive the fight on the Mars Lighthouse

----------Survivors-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

He knew he had to run. His hand dropped the bloody pitchfork as he turned and started to run. Panting, he had a horrible thought of his family back home in his burning town. He slowed, but the will to survive pushed him back into a full on sprint as he ran through the woods. "Damnit...how am I going to get out of here?" His sense of direction had been disoriented in the battle, as he had watched three of his best friends die and countless other brave souls fighting around him.

He tripped over a root and fell flat on his face. "Shit. Where the hell is the way out of this cursed forest." Pulling himself up, he ran on. Suddenly, he heard voices to the left of him.

"It's one of them, get him!" Metal clanged as soldiers started to give chase in their metal tunics. The man swore as arrows zipped by. He was tiring and he knew there was no way he was going to make it unless he found help soon. Just as the thought that he might die passed through his head, he found himself on a hill overlooking the Tolbi docks. Breathing heavily, he ran down toward the docks, hoping for a ship to jump on and leave.

He ran past the port's bazaar, the stalls deserted and goods lying everywhere. A few people were running through as well on their way to the docks. He looked down the main street.

"Daddy, Daddy!" A girl screamed. She ran down toward him, her torn skirt and messy brown hair flapping in the light breeze. Smiling, he picked her up in his dirty and scuffed arms, glad that his family had miraciously escaped from their destroyed village. He almost skipped with his daughter in his arms down to his waiting wife and son. Unfortunately, he had forgotten about the pursuing Tolbian troops.

Arrows flew through the air. His daughter screamed. He gathered his family in front of him and started to run. The extra weight in his arms was slowing him down and hindering his ability to run. Suddenly, he stumbled on some vegetables that were strewn over a section of the road. The sudden fall saved his life as two arrows flew right by where his back had just been, but they thudded into his wife's head and neck.

"Damnit!" There was nothing to be done. One look at the pooling blood and still body told him that she had at least died a relatively quick death. Grieving and stricken, he resolved to get his children out safely. He picked himself up and continued to run with his two children. But the soldiers behind him were gaining. The man saw a ship docked by the port readying to leave, already full of people. "Get to the ship!" he yelled at his children running in front of him. His body twisted violently as a black arrow struck his left shoulder. It was all he could do to keep running and keep his children from harm with his own body.

50 yards from the ship, another arrow sunk itself into his leg. His children turned at the sound of their father thudding into the ground, his calf and shoulder bleeding heavily. "Daddy!" The girl screamed louder and the boy's face was white with fear and panic.

"No, don't stop! Keep moving! Get on that ship!" The father knew his life was now being counted down in seconds. "I'll come after you in a different ship, just go!" His son felt differently, but he kept quiet as tears ran in small rivers down his face. The boy picked up his sister's arm and half dragged her along to the ramp that led up to the ship. The ramp was pulled up after him and his sibling. He stared over the side at the still body of his father and hugged his bawling sister next to him, to short to see her father succumb to the immense blood loss and the Tolbian soldiers.

The boy spoke, "Why...I don't understand." The ship sailed over the Karangol Sea at a brisk pace, full of other refugees fleeing the Tolbi Revolution. He looked at his sister, new resolve filling up in him. "We'll go to a safe place. We'll get away from all this war." His inner strength was betrayed by the myriad of tears flowing down his sister's and his face.

--------------------

"Imil is now a slave town. We were the only ones who managed to get out and survive the people who were chasing us," said Justin. "These men in black cloaks raided our town. We didn't know they were coming since our lookouts were killed, by the looks of it, pretty quickly. Only luck had Megan and me in the lighthouse outside of town. Most of the people were inside the town and it was the lucky few that went with us that made it here..."

Mia could only stand in shock with Isaac's comforting arm around her. There were only 400 people in Imil, each of whom she could attach a name to, but now 338 of them were stuck as slaves to Lunpa's will. She could only guess what they were going to do under the control of Lunpa's army.

"Don't worry Mia. We'll figure out something. There's no way we'll let your people sit in chains under Lunpa's thumb," said Jenna. Her reassurance was clouded by the fact that there was no easy way to get to Imil and rescue the people. Isaac had no words to say, just hugging Mia closer to him. Felix and Garet were busy sorting through the 50 or so survivors, giving them food and warm hospitality, but nothing could drive out their shock of being driven out of their homes. It seemed as if the horrors, of a conflict that hadn't even really begun, were just going to keep coming.

The VDF was bolstered with more recruits, volunteers who trained and worked hard for vengeance. Thankfully Vale had been built to grow to five times its initial size, so accommodations were not a problem. With more people to help build and work, houses were erected for the former Vault civilians in no time at all. The majority of the Imilians refused to consider Vale their new home, just a place to stop, rest, and prepare for revenge. They stayed in the now very full inn and in some of the houses of the more generous Valeans, new and old.

Some small towns that had sprung up in the general area of Vale also joined the growing town/city. Vale's population was on the rise since the surrounding people were not feeling too safe in their small villages. After all, if Vault can be destroyed, then why can't small rural villages be as well?

Ivan and Sheba approached the stoic Isaac and the silently crying Mia. Ivan looked at his leader and friend, "Our contact in Imil is still ok, so she'll continue to provide us with information, but she's hiding out in the area around the town so we won't get regular or completely on hand reports, but it's the best we can do."

Isaac nodded. Already, his mind was working on to how they can effectively deal with Lunpa and freeing Imil at the same time. There wasn't any obvious solution. There was only one way into Imil and one way out without going through freezing and treacherous mountains. VDF soldiers weren't available in the numbers needed to assault the Lunpa citadel and take back Imil at the same time. Besides, an army would instantly be noticed passing Lunpa on its way to Imil, providing plenty of warning.

--------------------

His sister was blissfully quiet and asleep. He had managed to get a small room for the night in the Kalay inn with the last of his scrounged money. After a week of wandering around the countryside after leaving the Kalay docks, he had managed to find the city of Kalay with his sister in tow. The pain of his parent's abrupt deaths was still fresh in his heart, apparent in the tears that coursed down his face after his sister fell asleep.

There was a knock on the door, "Michael?" The 13-year old got up out of the single bed he was sharing with his sister and walked to the door. In stepped the innkeeper's wife with a tray of hot soup and bread with cheese. "The two of you looked so hungry, so I thought I'd make you some dinner. Just leave the tray outside the door when you're done, okay?" With that she left the heavy food laden tray in Michael's arms. Slightly stunned, he turned around and set the food on the bedside table.

"Raine? Raine wake up. We got some food." Michael shook his sister's sleeping form. Raine woke up, rubbing her eyes.

"What?" Her eyes blinked sleepily a few times. "I smell something good. What is it Michael?" She scanned the room, her eyes resting on the tray heaped with bread, cheese and two large bowls of soup. "Oh, food!" Their exhausting journey from the Tolbi docks combined with little food and rest consisting of sleeping on the road side or in any sort of shelter they could find, had worn the two out to point of losing hope that they would or could continue to live.

The two dug into the delicious soup laden with meat and vegetables. The fresh baked bread slightly melted the cheese that was on it, providing for excellent nourishment and a general sense of well-being. Done in an amazingly short span of time, Michael took the tray and put it on the floor outside their room. Returning, he saw his sister already snuggling up in the covers of the bed. Sighing as he wondered what they would do next, Michael climbed in and resolved to figure it out after some rest.

A quick thanks and nod to the kind innkeepers and Michael was out the door with a protesting Raine. "Why can't we stay? These people were so nice. They gave us food and a room for almost no money."

"They only helped us because they felt sorry for us, two...two or...orphans wandering around. We need to find a way to survive on our own."

"How are we going to do that?" Raine questioned. For a 10 year old, she was quite bright and was determined to not let the deaths of her parents stop her from living. She looked at the bustling merchant town around her, the town already alive in the early hours of the morning.

"I don't know...I was thinking of going to Vale. They just finished rebuilding their town according to the local papers. Maybe they could use a couple of younger people to help with small errands and stuff. Besides, I told you about the heroes who saved our world, right? They supposedly live in Vale." For a village boy, Michael kept up with his current events. He stopped every merchant who wandered through his now burnt town to ask them for world news. His room had been filled with odd trinkets and paper, with every scrap of information he could get about the world around him.

"Oooo...that would be so cool. Could we meet them?" Raine had loved the story, although it was more of a collection of rumors that had floated in with a few merchants and passing visitors that Michael had pieced together.

"Maybe, but first we need to get there." The two walked out with a small pack of food and only general directions of where to go. What they were not told was that there was no longer any safe town to stop in between Kalay and Vale over the three day trip.

--------------------

Felix looked at the others around the table. "Alright, so we're all agreed?" Nods circled the large ornately decorated table in the town hall. Days had passed. The time had been spent debating and planning a plan to free Imil. The original plan to wait and train the VDF was no longer an option. A slave town could not be something to be waited for, but the task at hand was a giant chore. It required at least a month of preparation but it was time that was deemed necessary for a mission on this scale to succeed. Each person involved in decision left the building, contemplating the extreme difficulty of the operation.

The first step was for Ivan and Sheba to send a mental note to his sister Hama and from there she would forward it to Feizhi, since only Ivan's sister knew Feizhi well enough to communicate with her over long distances. Without a hitch, their operation started smoothly, but it was only the beginning.

Jenna watched her brother gnawing on his lip over the large map of Weyward on the table. "Hey bro, shouldn't you be getting some sleep? You don't look too good."

Felix looked over, "Yeah, I know I haven't been getting much sleep. It's been too chaotic with Vale suddenly full of refugees and people driven from their homes." He had bags under his eye and it was obvious by the many yawns that he covered that sleep was non-existent.

"Go home now. I'm telling you to get some rest," commanded Jenna. "You're not going to work well if you don't get sleep." Her concern showed in the pleading eyes but firm voice.

"Fine." Jenna's tall brother walked out and headed for the home that he shared with his sister. It was a sad thing that his parents were no longer alive to share it with him, but he knew his parents would never want him moping over them. Through the door, down the hall and into his room, Felix flopped on his bed. "If it wasn't for Jenna, I probably would have overexerted myself..." he thought to himself. "A little sleep should help me..." The Venus adept fell into a slumber within seconds.

Mia walked among the houses whose inhabitants included those who she knew from Imil. She visited each one, sharing grief and consoling them that everything would be all right with the power of the eight strongest adepts in the world. Done with her rounds, she returned to her room in the inn.

"Don't feel too bad. We'll get your people freed," said Isaac, standing in front of the door to her room.

"I know we will, but I'm not very happy with the time it'll take to get everything organized," replied Mia. Her contributions to the discussions that had taken place were mostly complaints about how long it would take to get her people free.

"But if we were to try now, we might fail. Do you want Imil to suffer more because we failed rescuing them? Besides, we would lose the army that we've worked so hard for. With Eastern Angara's help, we stand a much better chance," reasoned Isaac. Mia's concern was no doubt linked to the fact that she wanted Imil free as fast as possible.

"I guess...but I don't know how long I can stand just waiting around while my hometown is enslaved." Mia hugged Isaac. "I'll talk to you later." She disappeared inside.

Isaac sighed. He headed for the training grounds of the Vale Defense Force. Garet was putting the men through their paces. "Hehe...I don't think I'll ever get used to the fact that us 19 year olds are training some men twice our age." The blond adept thought. Seeing some problems among the younger trainees, some as young as 13, he barked out, "Bend those knees! I want flexible soldiers, not breakable wood!" Isaac proceeded to straighten out the form of several recruits. The next few hours till dinner were spent whipping the VDF into a fighting force to be reckoned with. Lunpa had had far more time to train, but Vale's men had heart and soul.

--------------------

"Move out! I want us to be at our destination in under a week!" Feizhi knew it was impossible, but she wanted to be on the front lines as soon as possible. Hama had told her what was happening up north and west, and she was not hesitating in helping out old friends. She flipped her purple hair out of her face in the light wind, "Hsu, are all the supplies in place?"

"Uh...yeah, I think so. We're ready to go," replied a plump short man. Two battalions were set to leave Xian along with a full squad of adepts. It was a dangerous amount to leave Eastern Angara with, since Altin's military was shaping up, but the Lunpa situation with Imil was judged to be far more serious.

Xian's little army could be considered small when compared to larger cities like Tolbi, but with a history of martial arts, Xian's soldiers were in far better shape than the majority of the world. Feizhi was the strongest adept in the force due to her longer exposure and training to psynergy. After the beacons had been lit, she had experienced a significant increase in the abilities passed down to her from Hama. With the other 20 adepts of varying skill and the 200 heavily armed soldiers, Feizhi had no doubt she could help Vale, but she worried about leaving her town with only 50 soldiers for defense.

"Master Hama wouldn't have me leave Xian unless she knew it was completely safe for me to go," said Feizhi to reassure herself. With that, the Jupiter adept led the two columns of men and women north. "I might get to see Isaac again too..."

--------------------

Nicoli was irritated. His nose was nearly frozen from the cold Imilian weather. Being from Lunpa, he wasn't quite used to cold and hadn't brought enough warm clothing and being a proud man, he refused anything warm from his army's officers in the slave town.

"I want the quota increased by a hundred here!" he yelled over the noise of hammering metal to the local commanding officer. He sighed. Lunpa had just been bolstered with a large amount of recruits from who knew where, and there wasn't enough equipment for them. Luckily for Dodonpa, Imil was now under his control and he set the town to producing anything their town needed. Nicoli was sick of the Imil's hostile attitude toward their occupiers; "With their work increased, they'll be less occupied with thinking up escape plans," he thought to himself. He was holding the children hostage so as to force the parents to make unflawed weapons, armor, and equipment. Luckily for the children, Nicoli didn't believe in harming younger people, who in his opinion "couldn't think for themselves yet." The kids were in one building, but they were given food, toys and general comforts. It also served to show the parents that as long as they worked hard, their children would be living a decent life. Well, as decent as one could live in a slave town.

He stalked back outside into the cold. "Its summer damnit...I am so not used to this kind of weather." He walked to the edge of the town and climbed up a ladder to one of the hastily erected guard towers facing south. His men weren't faring much better in the bitter wind, especially in a structure that extended 50 feet into the air. The trio saluted Nicoli as he stood up off the ladder. "Seen anything?"

"Nothing. A couple of Maulers and wild wyverns but our wyverns managed to keep them away," replied one black clad soldier.

"Hmph. All right...keep watch. You're relief shift will come in two hours." Nicoli went back down. "Its time I got out of this wretched place."

------------------

"Hey look at this. It's a message from Feizhi. She says she just left Kolima. That puts her two days out of Xian and a week and a half to her destination," said Ivan, looking at a message sent by bird in his hand. Ivan, Isaac, Felix, Picard, and Jenna were sitting the town's hall lounge room taking a break from the day's activities. New Vale was as busy as ever, but they needed a break from time to time. "Oh, she also mentions that there weren't any soldiers in Kolima to recruit."

"That's pretty fast. I wonder if our soldiers will be ready in a week," said Picard. The Lemurian had spent most of his time training the Vale Defense Force in missile weapons. He was by far the best archer of the group and his long lifetime in Lemuria gave the Valeans invaluable experience of the siege weapons from the island's records. Using Ivan's quick mind as a mine of innovation and creativity, Picard had developed catapults that could launch exploding balls that were based off of Ivan and Garet's grenades. Also in Vale's inventory of siege weapons were scorpions, large crossbows mounted on wheels that launched large bolts with explosive metal or wooden tips. "Our siege department has made huge progress, and with the addition of the troops from the Kalay area-"He was interrupted with a crash of doors suddenly being opened.

"Felix! Isaac!" Megan ran through the doors of the town hall and into the room where the aforementioned adepts were sitting. "Someone just came into to town with the news that Kolima and Bilibin's armies were killed by Lunpa, and there are these two kids who were carried in by a patrol. They looked half dead, but Mia's looking at them now. Garet told me to come get you guys." She stopped to catch her breath. Quickly, though, she recovered and led the others out a brisk pace. Reaching the psynergy stone fountain, she pointed at Mia's form crouched over two bodies and off to the right, the mayor scribbling rapidly as words spewed from a stranger's mouth.

The five adepts ran to Mia's side and looked on to one badly injured teenage guy and a younger, less injured, girl. The guy was unconscious but the girl was whimpering, her eyes wide with fear. Mia looked up. "Oh, hey. They were brought in by a patrol. According to the patrol commander, they were both found on the main road from Kalay under attack from bats and several wild caps. They're not in terrible shape, mostly superficial injuries on the surface, nothing I can't deal with."

"Lucky for them our men got there," said Felix, frowning on the fact that such two children were walking alone out in the increasingly dangerous world.

"It was lucky, but only because he was so badly injured. The two of them actually killed all of the monsters," said Mia, her arms hovering over the chest of the boy, glowing blue.

"Really? How does that work...did he have a weapon?" asked Picard.

Ivan bent to touch the teenager's forehead. "Adept. This guy knows psynergy."

Mia nodded, "He did have a dagger, probably stolen since it looked a little too nice for a person this age to be able to buy one. The patrol leader happened to be an adept and saw the guy launching Flares and Fire attacks at the monsters. He also said that when the guy was knocked out by a cap from behind, the girl went berserk and launched a couple Spire attacks, even though she was barely capable of a Quake before that. After that, the girl collapsed. She only woke up now and she won't talk to me beyond her name." Mia set the guy down, his injuries healed.

Turning to the girl, Mia said with a soft, kind voice, "Raine, will you say hi to Isaac, Felix, Ivan, Picard, and Jenna? They're my friends here in Vale."

At the sound of Vale and the names, Raine perked up, "Vale? The town of the heroes that Michael told me about? Are you Mia, the Mercury adept that traveled the world to light the lighthouses? And are you guys really the heroes that saved the world from shrinking?" She said it all in one breath, leaving her gasping for breath at the end of her stream of questions.

All six looked slightly taken aback. They knew that the world knew the rumors about their journey, but to have a young girl bombard them with questions like that was slightly out of the ordinary. Jenna was the first to break the silence with a smile; "Why yes we are those heroes. Its nice to meet you Raine. I'm Jenna, but my name is nowhere near as pretty as yours." She sat down next to the dark brown haired Raine, and nodded at Mia. "Your brother will be ok thanks to our Mia."

"Yeah I know. This merchant came into town talking about a group of eight heroes with a beautiful blue-haired angel who's healing powers were so good that she could raise the dead. If Mia can raise the dead, then my brother should be no big deal," said Raine in a worry-free voice.

Isaac laughed at that and squatted down in front of the young Venus adept. "Mia can't revive the dead, but she is pretty good with her healing skills. I hear that you have some skills of your own." The rest of the group arranged themselves in a circle around the still unconscious Michael and his sister, interested to hear the story of these adepts who had stumbled into town. The failed attack by Bilibin and Kolima forgotten.

"Not really. I can only do weak earth attacks and move things around, but nothing very big. Michael is much better than I am with his fire stuff, but we both never got really any help with it. It started a few years ago when we were outside our village in the fields and we saw this purple stone. We touched it the at same time and it knocked out both of us. After that, we could sense some power inside of us, but even then all I could do was move around small objects and Michael could start fires without a match, but nothing else. But then we saw those really bright beams cross the sky and after that, we started feeling more and more psynergy in us. You guys caused those beams to fly across the sky, right? By lighting the lighthouses?" asked Raine, her eyes now free of tears and wide in awe of being in the presence of such people.

Ivan laughed, "Yeah we lit the lighthouses. Do you mind if I Mind Read you?"

Raine looked hesitant but changed her mind and said, "Nope, I want to see you read my mind." Her forehead was touched be Ivan's hand, waves of Jupiter psynergy visible to everyone there pulsing through the air linking the two minds. The girl looked surprised as she felt her mind being read, but she also looked genuinely interested in what was going on.

Ivan released the link, and smiled, "So all you know about us is from some traveling merchants and visitors to your town, but I'm sorry about your parents." The others looked up at the mention of parents, which were obviously lacking at the moment.

The girl sighed, "Yeah, my mom died running from those bad Tolbi soldiers. They burned my hometown and we were lucky to escape. My dad said he would come in another ship but we haven't seen him or anything. It's only been Michael and me for the past two weeks." She slipped off into a state of depression, remembering her parents and lost home. Seeing this Jenna slid her arm around the girl's thin shoulders, trying to give some comfort. However, footsteps interrupted their moment. The adepts looked up.

The mayor of Vale and Garet were jogging toward them with concerned looks. "I'm surprised the lot of you didn't come to hear the message of Bilibin and Kolima's failed attack first. The news is bad. They mustered up 1500 men from all over their part of Angara and attacked Lunpa. As of 24 hours ago, there were only around 700 left, and more lives are being lost as we speak."

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A/N: Lots of deaths in this chapter...hope you don't mind...and if you do, or if you don't, review! I'm not very good with names, Michael seems so ordinary, but I like the name Raine...and yes I haven't put OCs for my amusement only...they will play a part in the plot...and o yeah...I'm not putting up another chapter till I get 20 reviews....I'm not really asking for much here...


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